Chapter 4: The Hunter Revealed

"Well I have bad news and worse news." Jet said as he entered the room and plopped himself on the couch. "The bad news is that none of my contacts have any idea who Dragonslayer might really be or how we might be able to find out."

"And the worse news?" Faye asked.

"The worse news is that they had been asked the same questions by at least a dozen other bounty hunters before I called."

"That means that we're in for some real competition." Spike said coolly. "It should be interesting."

"Interesting isn't the word I would use Spike." Faye responded flatly. "They have a head start on us, a big one." Spike responded with a shrug.

"If they do have a head start on us it means that they found something Ed wasn't able to." At the mention of Ed's name they all looked over where she sat at her computer, completely engrossed in her search.

"Dragonslayer, great knight of the stars, come out. Show Edward who you are." She chanted as she waved her arms. The three turned back towards each other.

"Lets go over what we know so far." Jet suggested.

"That'll kill a couple of minutes." Faye remarked rudely.

"If you have any other bright ideas lets hear em." Jet answered sternly. Faye said nothing and glanced away. When it was clear she wouldn't say anything Jet continued. "All right, this is what we've got. Someone is attacking members of the Red Dragon syndicate, why we don't know. What we do know is that he has the skill to take out over half a dozen heavily armed men and apparently not suffer a scratch. Spike said he has some sort of blades on his wrist and it looks like he has a portable plasma cannon." Faye snorted at the last part but Jet ignored her. "It also looks like he enjoys mutilating the bodies of his victims, again for his own reasons." He let out a sigh. "And we also know that none of this information is going to help us find him." He admitted. The three sat in silence when a loud beep came from Ed's computer.

"Message!" She cried happily and opened a video link to the caller. "It's friend of Jet person." She announced when she saw Meifa on the other end.

"Ed, where's Jet!? I need to talk to him right away!" She sounded near hysterics. Jet went over to the computer and Ed moved aside.

"I'm here Meifa. What's wrong?" He had never seen her act like this before.

"I saw him, ….. the alleys, he spoke with different voices!" Across the room Spike and Faye had been eavesdropping in on the conversation and Spike raised an eyebrow at the mention of different voices.

"Calm down Meifa, just tell me what happened. Go as slowly as you need to." Jet coached. Meifa took deep breath.

"I saw Dragonslayer!!" She blurted out. This earned the attention of everyone in the room. She saw the look of doubt on Jet's face.

"Meifa, this whole thing has Mars in a panic. I understand if you thought you saw something but …."

"I saw him Jet!!" Meifa interrupted. "He was tall, he had on some sort of faceless mask, his skin was, was yellow." She shivered at the last part. Jet felt his throat go dry, that was the way Spike described the guy at the warehouse. "You've got to believe me!" Meifa exclaimed.

"I do believe you." He assured her. "We've been on planet looking for this guy and you just described the same person Spike saw at the warehouse massacre." He paused to gather his thoughts. "Meifa I want you to listen very carefully to me. Go to nearest police station and wait outside of it. Don't go in and don't tell anyone what you saw. It's a public place and even at night a lot of people will be there so he won't try anything if he wants to stay hidden. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"But Jet…." She started to protest.

"This is for your own safety Meifa. Go there and keep a sharp eye open. I'll be there soon as I can." He stood and began to head for the hangar.

"Jet wait!!!" Meifa yelled after him.

"You can tell me everything when I get there." He said over his shoulder. "In the meantime GO!" He made sure to that she hung up before going to the hangar. Spike and Faye followed.

"You want us to go with you Jet?" Spike asked. "If this guy is after her you'll need all the help you can get." Jet shook his head.

"If he is after her he's sure to recognize you, and he's probably still pretty pissed at the fact that you shot him. That would put Meifa in even more danger."

"Makes sense." Spike admitted.

"And what about me?" Faye asked. "He's never seen me before." She pointed out.

"That's true." Jet admitted as he opened the cockpit of the Hammerhead. "You would make a great decoy."

"DECOY!?!" Faye yelled.

"Right. If this guy does show up both of us run in different directions and hope he goes after you." Jet explained. Faye's face began to turn bright red.

"I think it's a great idea." Spike said, a smirk tugging the corner of his mouth.

"Who asked you, lunkhead!?!" Faye shot back then turned back towards the Hammerhead. "Now you listen up …..!!!!" Her words were lost as the whine that came from the Hammerhead's engines slowly built up to a roar and the vehicle shot out of the hangar into the Mars night, leaving Faye standing there fuming. She considered yelling after Jet but knew it was hopeless so she turned and stalked off.

"Another chance to fulfill your true purpose in life and you blow it." Spike remarked without turning around. He then took a step to the side as a toolbox soared through the area he had just occupied. Surprised that Faye had been able to throw a large toolbox so far Spike turned around and had to duck to avoid getting hit in the head by a wrench. The hangar door hissed shut and Spike heard stomping footsteps growing fainter. He sighed and shook his head, it looked like it was going to be one of those days.

Waiting in front of the police station Meifa continued to look around nervously. Her encounter with Dragonslayer made her feel like she wasn't safe, even with all the police around. A couple of officers had asked her if they could help but she told them she was just waiting for someone. It was true enough, but she still felt like she was being followed. Dragonslayer had killed many people, but for some reason it had spared her. His strange Chi still bothered her. If it wasn't normal Earth Chi then what could ….?

"Meifa?" Meifa almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of the voice and was about to start running when she realized it was Jet's. "I'm sorry I scared you but finding the right station wasn't easy." Meifa started to speak but Jet put a finger to his lips, telling her to be quiet. "Not here. Too many ears are listening." They began walking, going through the almost empty market place. Only the most desperate owners kept their shops open but there were enough people and the noise level was high enough to keep most people to hear what they were saying. She told Jet what had happened and he compared the story to his own information.

"It sounds like the same guy." He said when Meifa had finished. "The bright blue light, the way he looked, everything is the same as Spike described. Except for the invisibility part. Are you sure it wasn't just the lack of light that made him seem invisible until he got close to you?"

"I know what I saw Jet." Meifa defended. "There was some kind of electrical sparking then he just appeared out of nowhere, only a few feet away from me." Jet frowned but gave it some thought.

"I guess the question is where would a person get equipment that high tech?" Where indeed. A portable plasma cannon was scientific reality, but an invisibility device? That kind of thing belonged in cheesy science fiction movies.

"He's not a person Jet." Meifa stated, breaking into his thoughts. She sounded very sure of herself and Jet didn't blame her. With the kind of things Dragonslayer had done almost nobody would consider him a person, more like a monster.

"You make it sound like he's some kind of evil spirit." Jet joked, trying to lighten to the mood. To his surprise Meifa remained completely serious and shook her head.

"I thought that at first but I could hear him breathing, and I couldn't see anything malevolent in him."

"Nothing malevolent?!?!" Jet exclaimed in disbelief. "Meifa, he's killed seventeen people so far!" He caught himself and looked around to make sure no one was staring. "And you were almost number eighteen!" He said in a quieter voice.

"No Jet. He just stood there looking at me and then left without doing anything. I don't know why but for some reason I knew he wouldn't hurt me." Jet frowned again. "You don't believe me do you?" Jet shook his head and sighed.

"I don't know, I just don't know." He answered truthfully. He had never put much stock in the supernatural but when he had seen Meifa use Feng-Shui things had happened that couldn't be explained by luck or coincidence. He started to ask Meifa another question when she stopped short and looked up. "What's wrong?"

"He's up there." Meifa said softly and pointed to the roof a building. Jet quickly but cautiously looked to where Meifa was pointing and could see nothing. Acting nonchalantly he took out a mechanical pair of sunglasses and put them on. Using the magnification capability he zoomed in on the area and still could see nothing. He took the glasses off and turned back to Meifa.

"There's nothing up there." He told her. In a quieter voice he said. "Go home and lock the door and don't open it for anyone. I'm going to try and get him to follow me."

"You can see him?" She asked quietly. In reality Jet couldn't but he did have that nagging feeling he always got when he thought he was being watched. That feeling had helped him out of ambushes and numerous tails back in his ISSP days. He had that feeling now, and knew that he had to put as much distance between Meifa and whatever was giving him that feeling.

"No I can't, but someone is watching us. I'm going lead him as far away from here as I can."

"But Jet …." Meifa started to protest.

"Don't argue!" He said in a stern voice. "If you stay with me you'll be putting yourself in even more danger. Go back to the police station and tell them you got lost and you think someone is following you. They'll give you a ride home and once you get there wait for a call from me."

"How will you get him to follow you?" Meifa asked, accepting the fact that Jet was determined to go through with this.

"By using the universal language." Jet said calmly. He then flipped the bird in the direction of the building Meifa said their invisible friend was on. "That should get his attention." He then noticed the worried look on Meifa's face. "Don't worry about me. I know how to lose people who are trailing me. Just get back to the station." He began to walk off. Meifa watched him until he got out of sight before starting back towards the station.

It was a huge gamble and Jet knew it. Abandoning Meifa like that would leave her vulnerable to whatever she had seen earlier. His two biggest worries were that whoever it was wouldn't take the bait and that there might be more then one of them. The latter of which he was able to dismiss fairly easily. Dragonslayer seemed to always work alone, and Meifa was sure that it was Dragonslayer she had seen in the alley. As for the former, Jet could still feel someone watching him and that meant he was being followed. That meant the gamble had paid off, now all that was left to do was lose him and that shouldn't be to hard.

The hunter had continued his hunt with little success. After his encounter with the insane female there had been no opportunities to collect anymore trophies. Deciding to move to another section of the city he had been searching the streets for any potential prey when he heard ooman yelling from farther down the same street. Moving to a building that overlooked the area where the yelling had taken place and to his surprise saw the insane female. This time she was accompanied by an older male, the one who had been yelling. The thermal readout for the male was strange, his left arm was twenty degrees cooler then the rest of his body. The only logical explanation was that the arm was artificial, yet it moved with the same amount of ease and motion as the arm he had been born with. Another ooman advancement that no one on home would have thought them capable of. An artificially enhanced ooman would make interesting prey, and in addition to the skull he would have the arm for a trophy as well. He looked back towards the insane female and found she was looking at him and pointing him out to the male. The male looked up in his direction but made no aggressive movements. He did take out a pair of black eye lenses and put them on. The hunter tensed up, with all the advancements oomans had accomplished it made sense that they had developed better types of detection devices. Fortunately for the hunter the device the one armed ooman was using was unable to detect him for the ooman took the lenses off and seemed to scold the female. A fitting thing for one who is insane. After talking with the female the male turned and made a strange gesture towards him. Extending his arm the male made a fist with only his third finger raised. Although it meant nothing to the hunter himself he knew it was an ooman gesture of disrespect. It was odd that the male seemed to direct the gesture at him when he had just appeared to not believe the insane female. The male started walking away from the insane female and a moment later the female began to walk in the opposite direction. He did not know why they had gone in opposite directions and he did not try to figure out why, oomans always acted in strange and irrational ways. Forgetting about the insane female the hunter began to follow the one armed male.

On board the Bebop there was nothing that could be done until Jet returned so they could come up with some sort of plan. Faye, still fuming from the incident in the hangar, was more then eager to try to get the ten billion reward by herself but since they had absolutely no information to go on going off by herself would be pointless so she watched Ed search, hoping to get some info.

"Haven't you found anything yet?" Faye asked impatiently. Ed didn't respond as she continued to hum and work her way through the net.

"That's the third time you've asked her that in the past ten minutes Faye." Said Spike, who was lying on the couch. "When she finds something she'll let us know." He might have hated kids but there was no denying Ed's skills, even if they came with a personality that was set to hyperactive twenty-four hours a day seven days a week, something that threatened to drive everyone nuts.

"Instead of just lying there you could be helping." Faye replied.

"How?" Spike asked calmly. "The closest thing we have to a lead is whatever Meifa saw and Jet's handling that. The only thing we can do now is wait for something to happen." Faye snorted at the statement. "If something is going to happen it will, the best we can do is hope it works in our favor."

"Well thank you Mr. Philosophy." Faye remarked sarcastically. Spike ignored the remark and tried to get back to sleep when Ed let out an excited yell.

"Ed has found all there is to be known about Dragonslayer." She announced proudly.

"Well let's see it!" Faye demanded. Edward pointed at Tomato's screen, which contained numerous articles about Dragonslayer, all of which had been dated within the past two days. "That's it!?!?! You were supposed to be looking for anything new about this guy!!"

"It's all new." Ed exclaimed cheerfully and clicked on one file. "This one written only ten minutes ago." Faye felt her blood pressure starting to rise but Spike took the news in stride.

"I think she meant that you were supposed to find out something about who he might really be Ed." Spike said without sitting up. "Or something about his background." He finished calmly. Faye was about to make a remark when Ed cut her off.

"No background and no real name." Ed said with certainty. "According to all information on the net Dragonslayer does not exist."

"Ed this is no time for jokes!!" Faye yelled. "Someone is committing murders and we need to know who!!"

"Edward is not joking." Ed replied. "No crimes like this before and no one in police files looks like who Spike person described."

"Well that was no illusion that almost took off my shoulder." Spike replied. "Somebody has got to know who this guy is."

"I may be of some assistance." Offered a voice that came from Tomato.

"MPU!" Ed cried happily. "You know who Dragonslayer is?"

"I might." MPU answered. "The description you used in your search is something I have seen before."

"Ed is it possible for a computer to be senile?" Faye asked, becoming annoyed. "MPU is over fifty years old. How could he know who we're looking for?"

"It is very simple." MPU answered, ignoring Faye's sarcasm. "I was originally part of a defense satellite and had many files stored that were to be kept safe at all costs. In my years of orbiting I read all of them and one of them deals with what Ed was searching for." Now interested Spike got up and walked over.

"So let's see what you have." Spike stated.

"Unfortunately there is a problem." MPU answered, sounding apologetic. "When Ed downloaded me some of my files were corrupted. I no longer have the access codes to open the files you seek."

"Ed will find them!!" Ed exclaimed readying her fingers above the keyboard. MPU brought up a password screen that that displayed 'Level five security: please enter passwords.' and three lines for different passwords, all composed of five characters.

"The passwords must be correctly entered on the first try or the files will be erased." MPU warned.

"No matter how complex, no matter what the size, nothing can keep Edward from the prize." Ed rhymed as she began typing. The lines for the passwords filled with Ed's trademark smiley faces and began to shuffle numbers and letters.

"What do you think level five security is?" Faye asked Spike. Spike just shrugged.

"Level five is national security." MPU answered.

"What nation is he talking about?" Spike asked. This time Faye shrugged. A few minutes

went by and all the lines were filled with numbers and letters.

"Success!!" Ed cried and hit the enter button. Instead of opening up the files they wanted another password screen popped up. This one displaying 'Access granted. Level six security now in effect. You have one minute to enter correct passwords'. And below the statement were six lines for passwords! In the corner a clock appeared set at one minute then started counting down. Spike and Faye became worried, they were in danger of losing any information about the bounty they were after but Ed broke into a devilish grin and started typing so fast her fingers seemed to become a blur. She finished three lines in thirty seconds and had started on the forth.

"Warning. File deletion will commence in thirty seconds if passwords are not entered." MPU warned.

"Can't you go any faster?!?" Faye demanded.

"Edward is very busy right now. Call back later." Ed replied without slowing down. As the timer reached ten seconds she finished the fifth line and started on the sixth. MPU started to count down the time remaining.

"File deletion in ten, nine, eight, seven," The first three spaces had been filled but the final two were not numbers or letters. "six, five," Thinking quickly Ed began typing in combinations of symbols. "four, three, two," Ed put in the final two and punched the enter button. The countdown stopped.

"Passwords correct. Access granted."

"Wooo hooooo!" Ed squealed happily. "Edward has set a new worlds record!!" Faye exhaled loudly, she had been holding her breath and didn't even realize it. Spike gave no reaction and leaned in to see what the final two symbols were that had given Ed so much trouble. He almost fell over when he saw them. Some smart-ass programmer from fifty years ago must have thought it would be funny to put a little joke on the tail end of a password to the most closely guarded secrets on the planet. Spike decided that hackers must not change from generation to generation, the final two symbols had been a colon and the right half of a parenthesis, forming a smiley face. "Can you find the files now MPU?" Ed asked.

"One moment please." MPU replied. As he began searching Faye turned to Spike.

"What could be higher then national security?" She asked.

"Got me." Spike admitted. "But it's got to be big if they went to this much trouble to hide it."

"Files found." MPU announced. A file opened up that answered Faye's question.

Global Security File # 162950

Code Name: Predators

"Global Security?" Faye questioned. "Why would they need something like that?"

"I think the bigger questions is what are Predators?" Spike answered.

"Accessing." MPU answered as he scanned the files. "Predators are the code name given to members of an advanced alien race of unknown origin that have frequently come to Earth."

"Wow! Little green men!" Ed said excitedly

"It's official, he's got his wires crossed somewhere!" Faye interrupted. "Aliens!? You've got to be kidding! Are you sure that you didn't open some science fiction page by mistake!?"

"These files have been verified as authentic and there is no error in my retrieval of them." Was it Spike's imagination or did MPU sound offended at what Faye had said?

"It's no less crazy then anything else we've heard so far." Spike told Faye. Though truth be told he was having a hard time believing it himself. "You can ignore her from here on out." He told MPU. "What can you tell us about these aliens?" Now it was make or break time.

"While their planet of origin is unknown it is theorized that it is one of extreme temperature."

"Theorized?" Spike asked.

"Very little is known about this species." MPU explained. "Much of the information I have is guesswork."

"Well I suppose guesswork is better then nothing." Spike admitted. "Go on."

"These aliens have been coming to earth for an undetermined amount of time, and always in the hottest of weather. The earliest known record of an encounter was on a South American pyramid estimated to have been written around 5000 BC." Spike let out a low whistle. This was becoming more interesting by the moment.

"And just how could these 'aliens' be around for thousands of years and have nobody know about them?" Faye asked sarcastically. MPU remained silent. "Well spit it out!"

"I was told to ignore you." MPU answered. Ed started giggling and Spike choked back laughter. Faye was beginning to get that dangerous look in her eye again.

"Go ahead and answer her." Spike finally said.

"Very well. Any pre modern reports of these creatures were discounted as myths and legends. In the twentieth century there were reports of them during both world wars, as well as the wars in Korea and Vietnam. All of them were credited to hallucinations or to battle fatigue." None of them had any idea what MPU was talking about but they listened. "They appear to be drawn by heat and conflict. The most costly was in Vietnam where there was an estimated nine hundred men killed inside of a year."

"If there were so many reports of them why didn't they try to stop them?" Spike asked.

"Because in almost all the cases there were no survivors." MPU answered. "The only thing found were bodies that had been skinned, some of them with their heads and backbones missing." Another connection to their mysterious bounty.

"So when did they figure out it was them that were committing the attacks?"

"In the year 1987 a small group of Untied States Special Forces were dispatched to a remote section of jungle on a classified mission. During the course of the mission all but one of the team were killed by an unknown force. The only survivors were this man." A picture popped up of a tall, heavily muscled man with a crewcut. "Major Dutch Schaefer and a local women who had become involved in the original mission. In his report by Major Schaefer described a humanoid creature that killed everyone in his squad. The method of the killings were compared with the other known attacks and it was determined it was done by the same type of creature."

"How did the Major kill the thing?"

"He didn't. During their battle the creature was severely wounded and activated a self-destruct device that triggered a nuclear explosion that destroyed the equivalent of several city blocks.

"Have there been any other reports since then?" Now Spike was very interested.

"Yes, the last recorded one was in the city of Los Angeles in the year 1997. There, a small unit of men attempted to capture it but were unsuccessful and all were killed."

"So that one got away?"

"Negative. A Los Angeles police officer named Michael Harrigan claimed to have killed the one responsible for several murders and reported to have seen close to half a dozen others in their ship. This was the last reported sighting before the gate accident."

"So what do these things look like? Do you have a picture of them?"

"I have no picture but there is a composite image from the Los Angeles sightings." MPU brought up a computer-generated image. There was no mistaking it, details were different here and there but what Spike saw in that image was the same thing he had seen in the warehouse.

"Well at least we finally know what we're up against." Spike said.

"That still doesn't tell us why he's here in the first place." Faye pointed out.

"My apologies." MPU said. "You had been asking about the Predator's past and I neglected to tell you why they come."

"Well don't keep us in suspense." Spike said.

"They come to hunt." MPU answered.

"Hunt?" All three said at once.

"Affirmative. The Predators view humans as hunting sport. The skins, head and backbones are believed to be trophies taken as reminder of their hunt."

"Do they hunt anyone in particular?" Spike asked, suddenly becoming worried.

"The only connection all those killed by Predators have is that they were all armed." That was all Spike needed to hear. Digging out his communicator he hoped he wasn't too late to warn Jet.

In another section of the city the Predator continued to follow his prey. The ooman had taken many twists and turns and would have lost most pursuers but the thermal view of him and his artificial arm was a dead giveaway, even in large crowds. Deciding to wait until the prey thought it was safe before striking the Predator continued to follow, waiting for the right moment.