Well, I'm back… Another teacher wanted a short story, and I was suffering from a severe case of writer's block. So I pulled this baby out, changed it a little bit, and tah-dah- Another A+. 100% to be exact.
Pretty_Kitty3: Yes, Faye was hugely out of character, but one must remember that I wrote that version when I was 13 and I was obsessed with Mary Sue's and I hated any character that stood between me and my man ;-). I'm still not a huge fan of Faye, but I think I've done a better job this time around. If you're still not satisfied, pretend she's drunk.
And I know that I portrayed Spike as a sex-crazed pervert. Sorry. If Julia, Vicious, and the syndicate thing never happened, then I can almost guarantee that Spike would be a pervert. After all, aren't all men?
Enjoy, and please be kind with your reviews. Thank you.
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Life as a bounty hunter has never been easy, even now in the year 2073. Especially if you were a woman, like I was. It was bad enough that this job didn't pay very well, and unless you were gifted in the culinary arts then the food wasn't too good either, but women were still treated like dirt.
Well, at the current moment, I was flat broke. Although I could barely handle instant ramen (Pull the String, Instant Heat!), one of my comrades, Jet, knew how to cook somewhat decent meals. And as long as I kept most of my skin covered, the other man on board, Spike would leave me alone and harass the other female, Faye, who wore as little clothing as possible. The only reason I tolerated her babbling was that she was the only other woman on this ship.
"You know, maybe if your shirt was a little lower right here," Faye said, her finger pointed at my chest, "then maybe Spike might actually know you're alive."
"I'd rather he didn't notice," I replied, swatting her hand away.
"Oh really? I saw you staring at him yesterday."
"That wasn't staring! That was more like, me spacing out…In the direction of his face…" I muttered, sinking lower into my seat as a deep red blush spread across my face.
"Yeah right, Katryna. More like his bu-"
"Hey, Katryna! I need your help!" Jet called from another room. Relief spread through me as I stood up and walked out of the room. Jet was stationed on the observation deck of our space ship, The Bebop.
"What's up?" I asked him.
"Nothing. I just thought that I'd save you from that fashion disaster," he smirked, tilting his head slightly towards Faye's direction in the other room. "I cannot believe she let you go like that. I never need anyone's help with anything," Jet said, taking a long drag from his cigarette.
"You do know those things are bad for you, right?" I asked, eyeing the cancer stick, using my hand to direct the smoke in any direction but my nose.
"And your point?" Jet shrugged.
"My point is, if you're going to kill yourself, don't take me down with you," I said, knocking the cigarette out of his mouth and crushing it under my boot.
"Hey, watch it. If I had any common sense, I'd kick both you and the slut off of my ship-" Jet was interrupted by the beeping of the communications device. Jet leaned forward and brought up the screen.
"Katryna, do you remember those space pirates I told you about?" Spike's voice came from the computer, his face on the screen. My heart jumped at the crude picture; darn him for having such beautiful eyes. "Well, I'm kind of in a jam, and I need you to come save me. Now, preferably." The sound of a machine gun rang out, and then the screen went blank.
"Lunk-head didn't even tell me where he was," I muttered as I stood up to go get in my ship.
***
"Spike! Where the heck are you?" I yelled into the communicator, cursing my limited visibility in space.
"Right below you." I shifted the controls to adjust for the disturbance he made cutting underneath of me. 'Show-off,' I thought. "By the way, the pirates are right behind me." I grabbed my controls and swerved to the right, narrowly avoiding a volley of shots.
"What did you do to tick them off?" I asked, as I came back around from behind one of the pirate ships.
"Nothing. But, they do have one million dollars on each of their heads…" Spike said, and his thought passed to me silently: money. Life as a bounty hunter was based on the stuff, as a drug dealer's life is based on crack.
The next five minutes happened in a blur of bullets and smoking metal, so I regret to say that I cannot tell them in great detail. All I know is that it ended quickly, with two of the five pirates injured beyond repair, the other three retreating, and smoke coming from my engine.
"Come on, Katryna. Let's chase after the others," I heard crackling over the communicator. The reckless look in his excited eyes spoke volumes.
"Can't. Serious damage to my engine. If I start it, it blows up. If I eject, I die painfully. If I sit here, I've got ten minutes to live before the poisonous fumes kill me." I announced calmly, in spite of the panic stretched beneath the surface.
"What? You can't be serious. It's not that bad-" he protested.
"I've got a perfect view from right here. Fifteen minutes tops before it blows. I suggest you get your butt out of here." The following silence told me that Spike had taken my advice. I sighed to myself, my heart filling with sadness at his abandonment. I guess I should have expected it....
RATATATATATATATATAT! I glanced up in surprise to catch the blur of his ship, spitting a stream of bullets through the nose of my ship. It was just enough to cut off the nose, so that I was safe from the explosion that I knew would follow. But the fumes were getting stronger...
***
The sun beating on my face and the dusting blowing into every opening in my clothing were the first things I was aware of as I came to.
As I cracked my eyelids, I saw a Spike-shaped shadow leaning over me, his fuzzy hair blocking the worst of the rays. Noticing that my eyes were open, a smile lit his face, and I returned it, glad to be able to. A look of affection passed between us as he leaned in and kissed me.
And I couldn't help but laugh at the mental image of the dumbfounded, furious expression on that would have adorned Faye's face.