Disclaimer: I do not own Cowboy bebop or any of its characters so please don't sue me for this fan fic! Oh I love feedback but remember it's my first fic so be nice! ':-)

Chapter 3: A phantom bounty



"Hey spike" Jet radioed



"Yeah" Spike responded



"The city in which the building was blown up in, is named Soderta." Jet read off the monitor



"Never heard of it is it large?" Spike questioned, looking into the monitor



"I suppose it is…although I've never heard of it either." Jet scratching his head



They landed in a medium sized metropolis filled with a bustling population going every which way. Jet went into a nearby bar for some interrogating; lighting another cigarette while doing so. Spike, already puffing on his cigarette, strolled around a bit before finding himself in a back alley littered with homeless and garbage, perfect for bounty hunting.



"What'll it be there?" the bartender asked with a slow drawl, obviously not born in the city, from his slow drawl and thick outside accent.


"Um scotch….yeah scotch would be good." Jet answered slowly (the slow drawl rubbed off of the bartender easily onto Jet)



The bartender eyeballed him for mocking him, but served him his drink anyway.


Jet studied the bar briefly, It wasn't very dingy because the city appeared new, but it still held the bar type of odor and the haziness. There were four other people in there two of them were old drunk men with a myriad empty shot glasses pushed out in front of them; one of them was passed out two stools down. The other had his head in his hands smoking a long dead cigarette. The other two were two middle aged men at a table near the back, they were talking in hushed whispers as one handed the other what appeared to be a package, and the other some woolongs. They both left noiselessly out of the bar.




"Here you go." the bartender slid down his drink and he lifted it gingerly and sipped at it a little.



"Hey do you know of a man called Travis Dolton? He was said to have blown up a building in this city and he just so happens to have a pretty hefty bounty on him." Jet asked the slow bartender



"Nah his name don't ring no bells and as far as I know there aint been no buildins' blowin' up 'round here." The bartender pondered



"How long have you lived here?" Jet leaned closer to the bartender cleaning the empty shot glasses that belonged to the passed out man.



"Um 'bout ten years." bartender sighed "Sorry I'm not much help t' you Mr. bounty hunter."



Then the old man who was smoking his cigarette looked up in fear at the supposed bounty hunter, and ran out of the bar like the wind.



"Who in the hell was that?" Jett asked about to pursue him



"Oh him, that's Jim, yup, he did some petty theft and he has a small bounty on him. He's paranoid 'bout it though, but since it ain't a very big bounty no one really chases him." The bartender answered feeling superior for knowing who he was.



Jet sighed and walked out of the bar in search of another more helpful individual.


:: Man that guys accent really bothered me...that's odd in ten years he said there wasn't any buildings exploding and the name Travis Dolton wasn't even known…that's quite odd although so was the bartender::



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Spike was down in the alley trying to talk some sense into the boozed up drunkards. The alley itself was covered in decomposing garbage and smelt of rotten eggs. The whole place was a rotting cesspool of downtrodden lower class. The people that lived here built small cardboard shacks and had a community fire in the middle of the alley. Spike picked out a suitable person to interrogate. He was leaning against the wall with a long grimy nasty beard and nappy hair. His clothes were tattered and stained, and he smelt of old whiskey.



"Hello can you here me?" Spike spoke to him in a soft tone



There was no answer except the mans eyes rolled and crossed


"I said I was looking for a guy named Travis Dolton do you know where he might be?" Spike yelled impatiently at him



The grimy man just stared at him then giggled and mumbled, and then started to foam at the mouth


"Ewwwww" Spike dropped the guy and sighed



::I'm not making any progress on this bounty and I've asked everyone on this street and they don't have any recollection of the building bombing….geez patience is not one of my virtues that's for sure::



After a few hours of asking people and searching the net and looking in banking records or anything they came up short and met on a street corner.



"I haven't found crap." Jet puffed on his last cigarette



"Same, this guy must be incredibly careful at covering his tracks or something is wrong…are you sure we're in the right city; and planet for that matter?" Spike grumbled irritably



"Yes! I've checked it over five times now we're in the right city and the right planet." Jet snapped



"Listen, I'm going back to Bebop I'm damn tired of chasing a phantom bounty." Spike retorted heading towards the Swordfish "You can come…" Spike waiting for Jet to make his move



"Uh I think I'll stay here just a while longer…just in case we missed something" answered Jet gradually



"Whatever." Spike moaned and lifted off towards Bebop

Patience space cowboy...



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I don't have much to say about this chapter except I hope you aren't too confused at this point. They curse some in this but not too much so I think it's pretty mild. ^^