Alright, this is the next chapter. By the way, I deserve major kudos for Billy, the Ed-like character. No, I don't know why he's like that. I do know that it's bloody hard writing him. His mind works in a way unlike mine, so I really have no idea what he's going to be doing at any specific moment, so it's hard to write it. It would be so much easier to make him just a normal person like Spike, but no. I love you guys too much to do that.

Shout out: Shanni. Yeah. And Jeril, too. Cause he's just cool. Yeah. And that Mieow person, or whatever your name is. Too lazy to look it up, but you reviewed one of the chapters. I think.

Dreaming: 4.

XXXXX

"What?!", Spike shouted. "Whatta you mean?!"

"Well, this looks like it's your first bounty. I don't get it, what's the big deal?" The policeman stated with a questioning voice.

"The deal is that I've caught lots of guys. Seriously, I'm a big bounty hunter. How could this be my first bounty?" Spike was incredulous. He had made it to the police station to find out what happened to himself, and he found out something, alright. He had never caught a bounty in his life. It didn't make any sense, Spike just KNEW he had caught bounty heads before. Lots of them.

So why weren't they listed? An idea struck Spike. He could get the police officer to look up some of the bounties Spike and Jet and Faye and Ed had caught, that would show the officer Spike wasn't crazy. "Here, look up the name Rhint. I helped Jet catch that, my name should be under the listing. Look up Baker Panchorero, too. I caught him, he was worth around 800,000 or so woolongs, wanted for Robbery. Abdul Hakim, wanted for pet theft. He stole the famous data dog, remember?" Spike's voice faded slowly as the officer shook his head.

"I'm sorry, sir. None of those names are registered as Bounty Heads, either at large or apprehended. They don't exist, or they aren't in our records. And trust me; if you had caught them, they would be in our records."

Spike grabbed the moniter from the officer and typed the names into the search engine himself. His hand shaking, he managed to type the entire name of Baker Panchorero in without a mistake. Spasticly, he hit the Enter button and waited for the computer to finish searching.

The electronic message blinked slowly, reflected in Spike' two brown eyes of the same shade.

::No Result:: ::No Result:: ::No Result::

Spike stood up silently. Perfectly calm, he grabbed the 75 woolong bounty he had made on the petty thief. Billy was busy balancing himself on the officer's phone with one finger, Spike tapped him on his side.

"Billy, get on your feet. We're leaving." Billy flipped onto his feet, dirtying the police's routine reports with his grimy toes.

"Where are we going, Spikey?", Billy asked tentatively?

"I don't know. Out. The junkyard. A bar. I don't know, I don't care. Just out."

"Whee!! I love an adventure!!" Happily, Billy jumped to the floor and began to walk around on his hands.

As Spike and Billy exited the station, Spike could hear the officer calling after him.

"Hey, sir, wait!! Do you want me to register you as a bounty hunter or something? It's no trouble."

Spike waved carelessly at the officer over his shoulder, not looking back. "Just register me as Spike Spiegal, that'll be good."

Further cries were ignored and unheard.

XXXXX

"Spikey, when are we stopping? I'm tired and I'm thirsty and I'm hungry and my feet hurt and we've been walking forever and I want to stop and die." Billy whined incessantly.

Spike grouched at him angrily. "Billy, you slept twenty minutes ago, you have water to drink half an hour ago, I bought you some fruit fifteen minutes ago, you've been walking on your hands all this time and we've been walking for 20 minutes. If you want to die, there's a nice ocean I could throw your body in just a couple minutes from here. Now shut up and stop whining, I need to think."

Cowed, Billy flipped onto his feet and began to trot alongside Spike, keeping time with his step.

"Ooo..there's a ship flying past..pretty.." Billy's head tracked the ship and twisted around behind his back to keep watching. "There must be a harbor or docking bay nearby, can we go look, Spikey?"

Spike almost snarled at Billy, but then he thought better of it. A ship could be very useful, if Spike used it correctly.

"That's right, Billy. Let's go look at the ship dock."

Giggling simply, Billy began to run in circles around Spike while making little airplane noises through his nose. Spike began to run, pretending Billy didn't exist.

XXXXX

"wow..so many ships, Spikey. Can I have one? I want that one.." Childlike, Billy pointed at the most flashy of them.

"We can't have that one, it's too noticeable. However.., I'm positive that I'll be able to get that one." Spike used his thumb to point at a simple red ship, not unlike the Swordfish that Spike once owned, to the best of his knowledge

XXXXX

Casually, Spike walked up to the ship. Delicately, Spike ran his fingers along the seam of the bubble window, until they found purchase on a hidden catch. Spike quickly worked a thin slide of metal into the catch and with a sharp twist, the hood popped open. Spike jumped into the hatch and Billy quickly followed, marveling at all of the little buttons.

Spike hurriedly closed the bubble and began to gain access to the ignition wires. With a little aid from a knife, Spike stripped and crossed the wires, smiling as the engine hummed into life

Spike sat back in the familiar chair, feeling his hands grasp the controls exactly like he always had.

Or had he? As Spike flew out of the yard ignoring the hails from the control tower, Spike thought about what he knew so far.

It was a small amount of information, that was for sure. Billy knew him, though Spike had no idea where from. Despite all of Spike's memories, Spike had apparently never caught a Bounty Head in his life. Neither had Jet or Faye, for that matter. None of the bounty heads that Spike remembered even existed, in point of fact.

And most importantly, Spike had been frozen for some amount of time, by somebody. Spike didn't know who was responsible, or how long he had been frozen. He knew where to go to get the answers, though.

"Spikey? I love being in space and all, but where are we going?" Billy's plaintive voice broke into Spike's musings.

Smiling grimly, Spike answered the question. "We're going to go find an old friend of mine, Billy. You'll like her, I think. She's just like you."

"How much like Billy?" Billy wondered aloud.

Again, Spike smiled, this time with humor. "Trust me. She's just like you."

Billy poked Spike, wanting more information. "Does she have a name like Billy?"

"Yeah. She calls herself Radical Edward, but her full name is Edward Wong Hau Pepilusky Chivrousky the Fourth. You can call her Ed, though."

Billy giggled at the long name. "Ed."

Staring into the stars, Billy repeated the simple name until he fell asleep.

XXXXX

Okay, that's done. I get this stuff pumped out faster than I think I should. Huh.

So Spike's going to go find Ed. Yeah.

How about this, guys? I'll hold the next chapter hostage until I get an arbitrary amount of reviews from now. Three, let's say. I set my standards low. If you've already reviewed before, then you can review again. I won't write this if nobody's reading it.

Oh yeah. If anybody wants to Beta read, or anything.I dunno. Send me mail at darlantean@hotmail.com, I guess. I would probably just end up sending you whatever I write every couple of days, and you would tell me what you think of it, and I would decide to write more. Anybody up for it?