The Pain Inside the Electrical Storm

Chapter 3 - Bounty

It had been a while since Percy left. Three months, to be exact. Though they assumed that she was still alive, considering her portion of the bounty money was always gone. The crew had never really gotten over her leaving the ship because of her role being one of the ship's engineers, and one of their closest friends.

"How much longer until we reach IO?" Travis turned to look at the view screen, and took a sip from the metallic cup. He sighed when the warm coffee started to kick in again, and his energy level began to rise slightly.

"Three minutes and twenty-eight seconds." Carravagio appeared beside the screen.

"Thanks, Car." Travis looked down at Callie, and they both nodded. "We'll be back in an hour. Car, make sure you keep the shuttle bay doors locked unless we authorize it otherwise." He smiled, and Callie followed him down to the shuttle bay.

"Yes, sir." Carravagio disappeared the moment they left the bridge.

They met Marcus down at the shuttle bay, and he looked a little anxious.

"Can I go, too? I need to get off this ship for a while." Marcus shifted his weight on his feet several times as he awaited approval.

"Why?" Travis questioned him, a frown forming on his face.

"I just - it's because - I just..." Marcus trailed off, and shivered. "I just need some times off the ship. Is that okay with you? Just for a while?" Marcus pleaded with Travis, a sad frown on his face.

"Alright. Be back by 19 hundred hours, okay?" Marcus nodded, and they all got inside the shuttle. It left the Tulip, and arrived at IO a few moments later.

They parted ways, Marcus heading to the left of the entrance, and Travis and Callie heading to the right.

Travis bumped into someone's shoulder as he headed towards one of the bars where their bounty was supposedly going to turn up.

"Excuses me." He turned around, and stared at the back of the retreating hooded person. He shrugged his shoulders, Callie shook her head, they both sat down at a table in the bar, and looked around casually.

"Can I get you two any drinks?" One of the many waitresses wearing a skimpy blue latex outfit smiled over at them from behind a pile of plates a dirty glasses.

"No, we're fine." Travis thanked her, and she went back to the bar to get some drinks for the other people. Callie shook her head again, and rolled her eyes.

"There." Callie nodded suddenly towards the doorway, where a man had just walked in, wearing a long leather trench coat, jeans, and a white shirt that was torn in various places. His hair was dark black, and combed over to one side. Travis glanced over at him, then back at Callie.

"He's definitely our guy." Travis mumbled under his breath. They both stood up slowly, and smiled at a young man and woman who walked by, arm in arm. Travis and Callie walked towards the man, without acting suspicious. Until they bumped into him by 'accident,' and in one swift movement they both held onto either side of him, his hands pinned to his sides, and they forced him to walk out of the bar.

"What the hell is the meaning of this?" He cried out and struggled against their tight grip on him.

"Oh, I think you know." Travis said with a satisfied smile on his face.

"No, I don't! Let me go! I haven't done anything wrong!" He struggled even harder, but he still couldn't break free.

"Four accounts of fraud, three murders, nine assassination attempts, six accounts of theft, two successful escapes from the Mars feds... You've got yourself quite a colourful history, there. You'll be going away. This time for good." Callie muttered angrily.

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about those. But I swear, I was framed I never did any of that! I swear!" They dragged him back to the shuttle, smug looks on their faces.

Meanwhile, Marcus was walking down a hall, where several shops were located. Many people offered him sale prices on their goods, but he graciously declined. He wasn't in the mood to use his small amount of money. Or wasted it on half-priced optical illusion objects, and old stolen dirty jackets that someone else had probably worn the day before.

Before he knew what was going on, someone ran into his shoulder, nearly knocking him down to the ground. Luckily, he caught his balance in time, and looked at the person who had nearly knocked him over. They turned to look at him, but they had a dirty hooded cloak covering their face and body, and were hunched over slightly.

"Sorry." They whispered, turned on their heel, and ran as fast as they could away from Marcus. He shrugged it off as being nothing, but couldn't get the idea out of his mind that he recognised that voice from somewhere else. He shook his head, and headed back to the shuttle. He suddenly didn't feel like being away from the trans-utopian anymore, it seemed a lot more inviting than it had just been a little while before.

FORGIVE ME FOR MISTAKES! (I typed this all up at 3 AM, and I'm a little tired, so I may not have caught all the errors, so please inform me if you found any! Thanks!)

Yes! I finally found the time to type this up again! is slightly proud of self

I'm really sorry for the wait, but my computer crashed a while back, and erased all of my stories -- I'm just glad that I had printed most of the story a short time before that incident! And I wasn't able to log in to ff.net for a while, but luckily I found the problem! My personal firewall. But I'm just glad that I finally got to update! Please forgive me for making you all wait such a long time!

begs forgiveness

Thanks to all the reviewers! I love you guys so much! Sorry!:

Lexy-June: OH MY GOD! You reviewed, Lex! YAY! huggles Lex Thank you for the compliments. Your stories are great, too! Maybe you should write/post more! nudge nudge -- The nickname! Nooo! Hee hee! W00ty! I'm so glad that you reviewed! YAY! Thank you for reviewing, Lex! And... I think I'll write more H/W royal story for you, you know... A sequel to a sequel of a story... Hee hee... That is, if you allow Cake and I to do that... (Oh yeah... I found your Birthday Gift Website! Just ask me for the link!)

bloodredcherry: Actually, upon receiving this, I naturally went straight to work! But I wasn't quick enough to post it before the computer crashed -- sulks over great losses in stories But you reviewed again! YAY! is renewed with excited-ness I hope you enjoyed this chapter! THANK YOU!!!

JC6: I've updated! Sorry for the very long wait -- I hope you like the story so far!

macisgate: Yeah! Me too! I'm in love with Starhunter Yeah, it's addictive! I just wish I remembered to try to watch it whenever it's on tv. Thank you for reviewing!!! :)

Wow! You reviewed twice! YAY! Double the 'yay!,' actually! Well, I'm glad you checked back! I Hope you liked this chapter, as well! is extremely happy Sorry for the wait! kicks self But here is the next chapter! THANK YOU!

Kittyhunter: I love Starhunter! watches for the story YAY! Ooo, I think I spotted it!

Oo, you reviewed twice, too! Actually... three times, but I think one was a copy Thank you VERY much for reviewing!!!!!!! Yeah, don't worry I'll try and fit some in somewhere.

RaevenMoon: Thanks! Sorry for the delay :( Marcus and Percy are great! I love them! Sorry again! Thank you for reviewing!

FreakOTU: yay! You really think so? I've been trying to get them as real as the show's characters as possible! It makes me really happy to see that someone thinks they are! Thank you a million times over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And no, I'm not one of their writers :), although that's kind of like a dream job for me, writing for Starhunter! I would love it if I were writing for them. blushes Thanks! It means a lot to me that you think that!!! THANKS FOR THE REVIEW!!!

Nathan:Yay! Thank you! Yeah, I love Starhunter. It's my favourite show, and Percy's my favourite character, too! I enjoy reading, too. I'm glad to hear that it caught your kept your interest! That's what I was aiming for : ) Thank you SO MUCH!!!

huggles all the reviewers

Another important note to everyone: Next chapter will be BETTER! :D Better than this chapter, well, in my opinion, anyway. And a little longer, too! SO YAY! I'll have it up in LESS than a week. Perhaps only a few days or so!!

Please R&R!!!

Sarah Harvey