Chapter 3: Going to Ganymede

Faye managed a weak smile as she slid out of her zip craft and onto the floor of the hangar in the Bebop. She knew that if she did not act as she normally would, Jet would suspect something wrong and grill her for the answer. She widened her grin as she dashed into the 'living room' upon hearing the television.

A year after 'Big Shot' had been cancelled, a copy-cat show emerged and happened to be a bit more successful than its predecessor. Personally, Faye did not much care for the show, but enough information was provided between commercials that she found herself busier chasing bounty-heads than ever before. Faye leaned over the couch, just enough to get her hair in Jet's way—if only to annoy him.

As a restaurant commercial began, Faye stood straight once more and stretched. "So, anything good around the Ganymede area?"

"Not really." Jet leaned back and propped his feet on the coffee table in front of himself. He lowered his voice as he murmured, "I see you came home alone again. When are you going to give up?"

Faye felt her heart sink upon Jet's question, the same nagging he gave her every time when he knew that she had gone out looking for Spike. He seemed lenient the first few times, but after the first month, Faye's persistence began to wear on his nerves. Over the five years it had been amazing that a greater rift had not been formed between the two, but that was due in part to Faye. She realized after a short time not to tell him about what she was going to do, even though he knew very well where and why she would leave.

"One of these days, you're going to get dragged into the syndicate. Spike was sure that he wasn't going to get dragged back in—look what happened. One of these days, Faye, it will happen and I won't go after—"

"Shut up!" Faye slammed her hands against the back of the couch before she spun around and stormed to her room, much in the same manner as an angry child.

Jet watched in faint regret as Faye disappeared into the hallway. [Stupid woman… I don't mean to aggravate her so, but she needs to understand that she can't just do whatever she wants and come out unscathed…]

Jet jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see the teenage member of the Bebop standing behind him. She had taken permanent residence with the two bounty hunters when her father had died three years prior. Although Faye and Jet often pondered what had happened, no one on the ship other than Ed knew—she didn't talk about it.

She was still an all-around cheerful girl, but she had also matured much after her father's passing. She tried not to show it, but knowing that she was without living relatives troubled her a lot—her only true home now was the Bebop and her only comforts were working and taking care of Ein. She smiled as her lengthy red hair fell in front of her face. "Only a few minutes in and already she's mad at you. Really, Jet, you should watch what you say sometimes."

Jet's usual understanding for the girl's words was lost in his anger. "I'll say whatever I damn well please, this is my ship!"

Ed shrugged, held her hands in the air, and sighed. "Whatever. Look, there's a new bounty-head that just popped up in Ganymede for 20 mil."

Jet shrugged as he turned toward the bridge. "Go tell Faye about it; I'll go change course."

Ed smiled, knowing that she had gotten as close as possible to an apology from Jet. She had known him long enough and well enough that she looked up to him as though he were a surrogate father. His tempers, mood swings, all of it, she could read as though an opened book.

Ed slowly made her way back to Faye's room and knocked delicately before opening the door. As she entered the room she saw Faye leaning against the wall, tear stains on her cheeks. Ed knew as well as anybody that Faye was sensitive about whether or not she was going to find Spike. "Hey, big sis, any luck today?"

Faye managed a faint smile as she wiped her face, trying not to look as distressed as she actually was. Ed had begun calling Faye 'Big sis' long ago, though neither one could remember exactly when. In a way, it made sense to each of them, because even though they were both without a place of their own, they had both come to live on the Bebop at about the same time. They were without any living relatives, but often found that the physical similarities that would have been shared by real sisters were made up for by the similarities in their personalities.

Faye moved and gestured for Ed to sit beside her as she sat on the side of her bed. She held out the piece of paper that Wes had given to her. "I think that this counts as the best lead I've had to date… Heh, I hope that I can finally find out what happened after this…"

Ed read over the paper and then placed her hand on Faye's shoulder. She flashed a quick reassuring smile as she handed the paper back to Faye. "Don't worry. I have a good feeling about this, Faye. You'll find him—next thing we'll know, it'll be just like the old days."

Faye shrugged as she reached for her pack of cigarettes on a nightstand. "You had a good feeling about the last several times, too, Ed."

"Yeah, well this time, it's real." Ed pushed the cigarettes out of Faye's reach as she stood to leave the room. "By the way, you really need to quit—those damn things are expensive, you know that, right?"

"It's a bill I can afford to fit." Faye smiled as she left the cigarettes alone and followed Ed out of the room. "So, what was Jet's problem? You know, earlier, I heard him yell at you."

Ed grinned mischievously. "I told him that he needed to watch what he said and that there was a bounty-head for 20 mil on Ganymede. It's so new that it hasn't even gotten the chance to be aired on TV. This guy sounds like a pushover, but I'm sure that we have our work cut out for us…"

"Who is he?"

Ed reached into the refrigerator and withdrew a can of food for her pet Corgi. "He's the leader of some unheard of terrorist organization. A bunch of guys wanting to stir up trouble is really all that it is. They claim to be out to spread the word of some unpronounceable religion and crush any Christians, Buddhists, Jews—anyone who happens to disagree with any one word that they say."

Faye watched as Ed bent over and emptied the can into Ein's bowl. "So, just a bunch of kids stirring up trouble in the name of a religion? Well, if that isn't unoriginal…"

"Pretty much. The guy that the bounty is on killed a few too many people. Not just any people, but people in high places with friends that have lots of money and lots of weapons. That's the part that won't be easy." Ed reached into the fridge once more and withdrew a can of cola this time. "Thirsty?"

Faye gladly took the soda as she leaned against the counter behind herself. [This shouldn't be too hard…]

Several hours later

Faye's eyes lit up as she looked down at Ganymede. Never before had she so wanted to come to this particular planet, but now she couldn't wait to set foot on the ground. During the time that it took to get to Ganymede, she had taken printouts of the information that Ed gave her and carefully studied her target bounty-head. She knew quite well that if she did not concentrate on the bounty, the reward would slip right through her fingers.

"You ready to go get him?" Ed smiled as she moved to stand next to Faye and also looked out at the planet ahead.

Faye's eyes became distant as she remembered her true reasoning for wanting to go to Ganymede. She spun around, eyes wide as she looked at Ed. "Did you find the address for that pawn shop?"

Ed took in a sharp breath, remembering. "Oh… It wasn't a pawn shop, it was a gun store. I guess that the guy spelled it wrong, because it was Randi's Golden Guns. It is run by a woman, Randi, and her husband. It seems that these are very prominent people in that community, not like the usual people from the syndicate."

Faye sunk back into a chair and sighed. "Which do you think that we should do first? Go for the bounty or go to look for him?"

Ed leaned back, taking a long look at Faye. "Well, you know what I'd normally say, but this time I have some different reasoning. If we want to really get the chance to speak with those people who own that gun shop, then we're going to have to appear to have some wealth—they won't open their doors to just anyone. So, logically, we're going to have to have the money from the bounty in order to get a word in edgewise."

The girls nearly jumped as they heard footsteps approaching the room. They both turned to see Jet enter the room. He took a long, heavy sigh and continued into the room, throwing a foul expression to both of them as he muttered under his breath, "Still wasting your time…"

Ed shot Jet a pleading look as she saw Faye's troubled expression. Knowing that not saying anything would only add to the tension in the air, Ed decided to bring up a different subject. "So, are you going to go out after this bounty, too, Jet?"

"Huh? Ohh… I guess so. I figured that you two had it all figured out already, though." Jet moved closer to Ed as she pulled out her laptop. He watched as she instantly pulled up several windows with information about the bounty-head that they were chasing. He nodded slowly and thoughtfully as he read the information. "So, do you guys have any idea how we're going to get this guy?"

Faye relaxed as she straightened in her seat more. "He's the type that is willing to go out in a blaze of glory if he thinks that we're after him—he'd much rather die than to be caught. I think it's best if we find a way to trap him."

"Well, isn't he just one in a million…" Jet shook his head slowly as he, too, relaxed. "Why do you suppose that there's such a high bounty on his head?"

Ed grinned as she began madly typing away on her laptop. "He murdered one of the top diplomats from one of the other planets. If he isn't caught and handed over, there's going to be war. The main point is that Ganymede doesn't have as much firepower as the other planet does."

Jet nodded thoughtfully. "This bounty has more to it than just a price tag… It has all of Ganymede riding on it—no wonder they haven't shown it on the TV."

A.N. Well, folks, I was gonna make this chapter longer, but if I do I think I'll scream. I have honestly gotten so used to short chapters that trying to make so many different things happen in one chapter is starting to make me sick.

--bleagh!--

Okay, I'm all better now. Sorry if I don't stay current with the chapters on this, I'm really trying to make myself finish 'Lying From You' and maintain my job. I got so swamped the other night that if it weren't for the fact that I'm new, I would have been fired or something… Manager was really pissed. Anyhow, I will probably take longer with the next chapter for sure, I'm going to try to cover the entire bounty-hunting experience, start-to-finish, in the next chapter. Needless to say, this will take quite a while.

Read and Review! ;-P

Ryoko Yuy / V Shape Otaku