Delicate Answer
I'm naming my stories after songs. This one is a Mercury Program song that is quite peaceful and enjoyable (every Mercury Program song is…) and so I wrote this while listening to it. This is a lost episode, taking place after the manga. I hope you'll like it…enjoy!
Turtle
Spike Spiegel was sitting alone in his own darkened room. His door was closed, but his bottle was open. If there were any better way for him to enjoy a night, he sure as hell would be hard-pressed to find it. To him, this was as good as it got for a broke bounty hunter. For him, there was nothing better than another night alone. Of course, the regulars were there. Ed was off in cyberspace somewhere, either hacking into something illegal or helping Jet locate the next bounty head. Jet was no doubt cooking his "special" beef and bell peppers; you know the one with no beef… And Faye, well, Faye was probably painting her nails, or trying in vain to help her appearance in some way. Yep, this was life as a bounty hunter… This is what a cowboy does…
"Spike?" Faye whispered. "Spike?"
"What?" he replied sleepily.
"Spike, can we talk?"
"What do you want, Faye?"
Just then, "Spike! Faye! New bounty!" Jet called from his computer.
"What's his deal?" Spike said, almost in disgust.
"If you mean the scars, he did that to himself." Jet was beginning to speak very matter-of-factly. "He attempted to hide his identity by cutting up his own face. Luckily, he didn't rip out his own teeth."
"…Why do you say that?" Faye said, obviously disturbed by the statement.
"Well, it seems that our guy likes to taste his victims--"
"Victims. What kind of victims?" Spike interrupted
"Mostly the dead kinds of victim, but occasionally there have been cases of rapes."
"How many?" Faye sounded as if she really cared now.
"Enough to make his bounty 17 million Woolongs."
"17 Mil?!" Now Faye sounded more like herself.
"17 Million, eh?" This caught even Spike's interest.
"Yes, 17 million Woolongs." Jet answered calmly.
"Edward could get lots of food if Spike-person and Faye-Faye get him!" Ed's input was, as always, useless, but damn if it didn't at least make you want to chuckle. However, this was no laughing matter. The ship, once again, needed some type of major repair, and the food that the crew depended on was beginning to dissipate.