February 18, 2071

Mars

9:30 AM

"I see." Vicious said with a deceptively calm tone to his voice. Shin knew the shit had hit the proverbial fan, that, and he was going to enjoy bring Joseph in. The display clicked off as Vicious ended the transmission with out a word of goodbye. Shin smirked; he knew Joseph was a dead man. As it happened, Shin had gone to the private school that Obsidian had attended only to find that the girl had not attended in two years and was currently being home schooled.

The principal, a genuinely nice man, expressed concern over the welfare of Vicious' young ward. The last year that she had attended, several letters had not only been sent home, but she had been referred to the school counselors for repeated bruises about her face including black eyes. Shin had read copies of the letters home and the notes of the school counselor as it suggested that there was a severe level of abuse going on at home and a request had been put in to the ISSP to investigate. Obsidian denied any abuse and gave typical responses of falling down or fighting with a neighborhood bully. Nobody believed it, but the ISSP had their hands tied unless she spoke out about it. Shin left the school and got into the waiting car.

"Take me to this address." He told the driver as he handed him a slip of paper.

***

Joseph had packed that night and the cab was outside waiting to take him and that stupid whore to the spaceport. He had a little under an hour to catch the flight. He had traced the ship ID of the 'Bebop' and found that it had entered hyperspace headed to Ganymede. He grabbed the woman's arm, she said her name was Mary but he usually just referred to her as bitch, and dragged her out the door. Joseph tossed his bags in the trunk and shoved her roughly into the cab. He would catch up to them on Ganymede.

***

The Van read the reports on the events of the week, stopping every so often to make a decision regarding some such business venture or another. It was fairly early in that they discovered the report of a sudden and sharp increase in the amount of resources that Vicious was suddenly putting to use. Their eyes narrowed as if the three were one.

"I would much like to see the girl that young Vicious is so interested in." The one in the middle spoke in a rusty little used voice.

"As would I." Stated the one on his right with a sadistic grin.

"Perhaps young Vicious has another weakness beside his thirst for power and blood." Mused the one on the left.

All three smiled knowingly before the one in the center spoke again. "Then we shall place our own bounty quietly, on the girl herself."

The other two nodded, "Hai."

***

Shin's car pulled up to the curb in front of the little rundown house. He walked to the door and rang the bell. After a few minutes with no response, Shin drew his gun and kicked the door open. His weapon out, Shin methodically searched each room for any clue to where Joseph had gone. He could only find one however, a scrap of paper with the word Ganymede written on it.

"Shit." Shin muttered as he walked out to the waiting car. "Vicious is not going to be pleased.

***

February 20, 2071

Ganymede

Jet landed the Bebop in the warm waters of the Ganymede Ocean with a smile. Things were finally getting back to normal, though for some reason Obsidian was not speaking to Spike beyond telling him to 'piss off'. Jet frowned at that thought. They were going to have to teach the girl a new vocabulary. The only words she seemed to be proficient with would make hardened career criminals blush. Jet turned off the engines and engaged the dock clamps then went to the hanger to do some much needed work on the Swordfish II. The way Spike beat on that poor fighter it was a miracle that even Jet could fix it. He shook his head and began to prepare for tomorrow's hunt.

***

Ganymede

The tall auburn haired man was asleep in a chair, a book open over his closed eyes. The shorter Japanese man rolled his eyes as his partner began to snore softly. A quick kick to his foot woke the sleeping man from a pleasant dream. He shot awake and to his feet, book clattering to the floor.

"What? What's going on? Are we under attack?" He muttered, blinking sleepily.

"Only from your seismic snores, Ian. I think you hit about a 7 on the rictor scale." His partner laughed.

"Very funny Toshi." Ian sighed. "Whad'yah wake me up for?"

"Big Shots is coming on, and we gotta eat partner." Toshi replied in the male host's fake accent.

"Oi! It's disturbing when you do that." Ian groaned.

Toshi only grinned as he flicked on the monitor and switched channels until the familiar theme song filled the air. The dark skinned man and the buxom blonde, who's top which held together purely on wishful thinking, began to talk about the newest bounties on the list. An imposing picture of a scowling man in a grocery store was about the third bounty in, and the ten million wulongs reward offered made him a likely target for dinner. He wasn't much, just a kidnapper. Judy let out a squeal and announced that the dangerous 'hombre' was last seen headed for Ganymede according to a tip they had received. Ian grinned, knowing they couldn't have been here long. A picture came up of the pretty little girl that he had taken.

"Aww... She's a little cutie!" Toshi said. "Poor little thing must be scared to death."

"Christ, you're gonna go off on your 'damsel in distress' kick aren't you?" Ian groaned aloud what he already knew was true.

"Holy shit Ian! There's a reward on her too!" Toshi laughed. "It's almost like a two for one special." He grinned over at Ian and mimicked Judy's dumb blonde tone while batting his eyelashes. "Round up time Shugah!"

Ian cringed. "I swear to Christ, I'm gonna smack the shit outta you if you don't stop doing that."

Toshi just laughed at Ian's usual response to his particular talent. He had always had a gift for mimicry. Mostly he just used it to drive Ian nuts, but every so often it did come in handy.

"Come on, let's go get them."

***

Obsidian sat on the wing of the Swordfish II while Jet worked out a kink in its fuel system. Both men were planning the hunt that would take place after Jet finished fixing the temperamental fighter. Jonathan Andrews was a small time gunrunner with a seven million bounty on his head; he was listed armed and dangerous. Spike was going to canvas the bars looking for him, and Jet was going to take the various black market areas in town. Obsidian looked down from her perch on the wing.

"Ok, what's my part?" She asked.

"Nothing." Spike stated with a tone of finality in his voice.

Obsidian glared at him, "If you're gonna drag me away from my 'oh so dangerous life' then I wanna know what kind of life you're dragging me in to. So I'm going too."

"You're going to stay here and play with Ed." Jet said seriously.

"Like hell I am!" Sid was seething, "I'm not getting left out on this."

"You're too young, not going and that's the end of it." Spike glared at her.

"I've done more shit than you think. If I'm going to live here, then I'm going to help." She glared back.

"Great, I got a list of chores for you then." Jet said while he shut the engine compartment. "Go ahead and get looking Spike. I'm done here."

Obsidian slid off the wing and landed on her feet. She glared once more at the two adults before walking back off into the ship again. Jet sighed and shook his head.

"What are we going to do with her Spike?" He asked with a worried tone.

"She'll get used to it when she figures out that she doesn't have to do everything on her own. She just needs some time I figure. Just leave her be Jet, she'll be ok." Spike smiled as he climbed into the cockpit.

Jet shook his head and grinned. "See yah when I get out there. I'm gonna clean up then take the Hammerhead out."

Spike waved and took off out the hanger doors. Jet showered, changed into a clean jumpsuit, and followed out the door about half an hour later.

***

The Asteroids

Faye tossed the loosing tickets on the track floor in disgust. Well there's no hope for it, she thought as she called the familiar number. She'd just go back to the Bebop and cool her heals for a while. Those boys adored her; they'd take her back just like they'd done so many times before. The handheld rang as she walked to the Redtail.

***

Obsidian was still pissed as she was watching TV in the lounge of the Bebop when the screen blinked with an incoming message. She debated not picking up then absently flipped the switch to answer the call. There was a woman with short purple hair, almost wearing some sort of yellow outfit on the screen.

"Whad'yah want?" Obsidian asked with an eyebrow quirked in amusement at the other girl.

"I'm sorry, I must have dialed the wrong number." Faye responded in confusion.

"I'll say." Sid laughed. Who the hell did she think she was calling? Sid cut the call and went back to the show. About 2 minutes went by and the phone rang again. She sighed and answered it to find the girl in yellow again.

"What?" Obsidian said with an annoyed tone.

"Is this the Bebop?" Faye asked, now really confused. She had used her speed dial to call that time.

"Who's asking?" Obsidian asked, toying with her for amusement.

"This is Faye Valentine." Fay was beginning to get annoyed. "Who the hell are you?"

"Never heard of you." Obsidian replied. "Whad'yah want with the Bebop?"

"I want to know where it is! I live there." Faye was getting pissed.

"Not since the last time I checked." Sid was now getting annoyed.

"Where's Jet?" Faye asked.

"Out."

"Then where is Spike?" Faye hated talking to him when she was coming back, but she would rather put up with him that this kid. Hell, she'd rather talk to Ed at the moment than her.

"Out."

"What about Ed?" Faye asked hopefully.

"Who knows?" Sid shrugged.

"Fine, look, take a message and tell Jet that Faye called, ok?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll get right on that." Sid laughed as she hung up on her.

***

The Asteroids

Fay was seething as she traced her last call. The things she was going to do to that kid when she got her hands on her were defiantly not legal. She was going to kill the little brat. Her handheld beeped signaling the trace was complete. Faye read the location with a grin, Ganymede.

"Gotcha!"

She flipped the communicator shut and fired up the Redtail.

***

Obsidian tugged on her shoes and went off to her room to grab her trench, scarf, and hat. She really didn't need them, the weather was much warmer here, but she hated going anywhere with out them. They were as familiar as breathing to her. Ed poked her head in the room as Sid pulled on the trench.

"Where is Sid-girl going?" Ed asked curiously.

"I'm taking Ein for a walk. I'm pretty sure he's as sick of seeing the same scenery as I am." Obsidian said as she pulled down her hat and reached for her scarf.

"Can Ed go too?" Ed asked hopefully.

"Nah, why don't you stay here in case the hooker calls back?" Sid wrapped the scarf around her neck. "Where is Ein's leash?"

"Ed will get it!" Ed bounced off and surprisingly returned in a moment with the leash in hand.

"Um... Thanks Ed." Sid said more than a little surprised. "See yah later."

Obsidian clipped Ein's leash to his collar and walked out the door and off the ship. Ed sighed. All alone in the ship again, she turned to her familiar and reliable friend tomato. She was searching for the next bounty when what she saw made her stomach do a little jump.

"Uh oh..."