Disclaimer: There once was a writer named V,
With disclaimers for all to see.
So's not to be sued—lest it be misconstrued—
THE SHOW DOES NOT BELONG TO ME!
A/N: ...Can you tell I'm running out of disclaimer ideas? The normal way is so boring... -.-
Chapter 11: Rush
Paying no mind to the Jade Crow thugs scattering everywhere in attempt to avoid being mowed down by the vehicle, Red Tail made no hesitation to speed its way across the room, swerving to a halt in front of Jet. He stared open-mouthed as the side door slid open, revealing none other than Faye Valentine at the controls.
"Get in!" she ordered, holding out her hand. Jet had to blink a couple of times before taking it and allowing her to help him hoist himself onto the ship. Once inside he dropped to the floor, leaning against the wall and clutching his wound with a shaking hand. Faye gave him a quick glance before accelerating towards Spike and Vicious without bothering to close the hatch. She didn't seem the least bit surprised at Vicious' presence.
Veering to a stop again, she turned the ship to give Spike and Vicious easier access. Somewhere in the struggle, the two of them had gotten separated, but they were still both in fairly close range. However, Vicious was closer. He eyed the ship suspiciously, as if unsure whether Faye had come for him as well. Faye seemed to have a brief internal struggle, but ultimately exhaled loudly and sent him a look that seemed to say, 'Do you want to get rescued or not?' Catching the look, he made a swift leap and landed in a kneeling position inside the ship.
That left Spike. He was farther away from Red Tail than either of the others had been, and many of the scattering thugs kept him from getting any closer. Still under the effects of the drugs he'd been given, it was all he could do to stagger through the throngs of Crows; when he got as close as was possible for him, he jumped with all that was left in him.
Come on, come on... Spike pleaded to no one in particular as he soared through the air, praying that he wouldn't come up short; unfortunately, it looked like that was exactly what he was doing. Shit... He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting to hit the ground and be trampled to death.
Suddenly, however, he felt a hand grab hold of his arm, nearly ripping it out of its socket when gravity kicked in but keeping him suspended in the air nonetheless.
Unable to use his left arm, Spike could only kick like mad and use thugs' heads as stepping stones to attempt to give himself a boost. He hadn't looked at who had grabbed him; he knew Vicious' hands by touch. It looked like Spike wasn't the only one acting on instinct today.
Spike used one more thug's head as a launchpad and thrust his weight forward, getting his top half inside the ship. Vicious started to pull him in, when suddenly a stray bullet from some particularly determined Crow hit its mark. He grunted and almost dropped Spike when he felt a searing pain in his arm, but quickly switched hands, grimacing. At that point, Jet helped Vicious pull him the rest of the way inside, where he collapsed against the wall and watched the hatch close. Vicious dropped into the corner, clutching his arm, and Faye shifted into high gear, rocketing back out the way she came.
"What the hell...are you doing here?" Jet finally asked breathlessly, bunching up his vest and holding it tight against his side to slow the bleeding as they flew through the hangar and into a long metal tunnel. Apparently the tunnel went a mile or so out of the way, so ships could come and go without being suspected by the police.
Faye rolled her eyes. "Saving your asses, what does it look like?" She flipped her hair out of her face, then suddenly made an impossibly sharp turn around a corner. All three men in the back barely managed to brace themselves in time to keep from being tossed into a heap from the turn. "And you guys kept saying you didn't need my help," she continued on, smirking at Jet and Spike smugly as if nothing had happened.
Both of her fellow bounty hunters looked as if they were unable to completely wrap their brains around the fact that she was here. "I won't dignify that with a response," Spike finally muttered, and Jet nodded in agreement.
"What I'm asking is how you kn—"
"Hold on," Faye interrupted Jet, looking at her radar screen. It showed that several Jade Crow ships were waiting for them just outside where they were to make their exit. "Shit!" she whispered to herself after a moment, then abruptly stopped the ship and pulled out her communicator. She punched a number in, then looked at the miniature screen. "Ed, you there?"
This time it was three pairs of eyes that blinked in surprise, but Faye paid no mind to them. After a moment of static, she came face to...eye...with Ed herself.
"That you, Faye-Faye?"
"Yes, Ed..." She made a face. "Will you get your eye off the screen already?" Ed giggled and obeyed, holding her end of the communicator at a better distance. "Alright," Faye said, "we're gonna need the reinforcements. Send in both of them."
"Roooooger-rabbits!" Ed sang in reply, then reached over and grabbed a remote control—the same one she'd been working on when Jet and Vicious left the Bebop. "Blast-off! They'll take abouuuut five minutes. Faye-Faye's birdy-ship will have to wait, wait, wait!" she announced.
"Great," Faye groaned, slumping in her seat. "Alright. Thanks, Ed."
"Yep yep yep! Bye-bye, Faye-Faye!"
Faye shut off her communicator and stuck it in her pocket, then turned off Red Tail's engine to avoid wasting fuel. She then turned partway around in her seat to observe the three men in the back. They were quite a sight; they looked like they'd just stepped in from a war. By now, Jet seemed to be taking a break from asking how she'd known to come for them, growing weary from blood loss. Spike and Vicious hadn't made eye contact even once since they'd boarded the ship; she could practically feel the tension between them. Spike had barely moved from his position; now he just had his eyes closed in exhaustion, his good arm absently covering his abdomen. And Vicious...she really didn't want to think about Vicious. In her ship. Right there. Why did she do these things to herself?
"Faye..." Hm, looked like the break was over. A look in Jet's direction showed him with his head in his free hand, a position she'd come to recognize when he was either confused, fed up, or both. After a second, he opened his eyes again, blinking them once before focusing on her. When he spoke, he left space between each word, much like a parent trying to get the truth out of a lying kid. "...Why are you here?"
A small pang of concern rose in Faye, and she finally decided to have some mercy on him.
"Ed," she answered simply. "She figured out where I was, then found some way to e-mail me. She's been keeping me up to date since the first night." All this was said matter-of-factly, as though it wasn't sounding more like a conspiracy with every word. "Ed's the one who planned all this out. She kept telling me not to go anywhere, in every e-mail, until this morning. That's how I got the place and time."
Jet looked as though he'd had an epiphany. "That's what she was doing..." he murmured half to himself, his eyes going unfocused again. Faye only shrugged and turned back around in her seat.
For the next couple minutes, the only sounds emitted from the occupants of Red Tail were an occasional shift in position or an infrequent cough. The tension inside the ship was high enough as it was; there was no need to heighten it further by chancing a sour conversation topic.
Finally, Faye's communicator beeped. "Incomiiiiiiiiiiing!" announced Ed's voice when she picked it up.
As if on cue, the roars of two engines started to echo through the tunnel, barely audible at first, but slowly growing louder...and louder...until...
For about the third time in the past ten minutes, Spike and Jet had to do a double-take as their ships...both Hammerhead and Swordfish II...slowed to a stop on either side of Red Tail.
Faye smirked at her two comrades proudly, then looked back to her communicator. "Alright, Ed, they're here. You sure you can control both of them with that remote of yours?"
Immediately Jet and Spike jumped up behind Faye's seat in the cockpit and broke into dismayed protests; Ed, piloting their ships?
"What the HELL do you think—"
"After ten years, no way in hell—"
"—you're doing, letting the kid—"
"—am I going to let the insane hacker kid—"
"—who makes her own COMPUTER malfunction—"
"—PILOT MY SHIP!" they finished in unison. Faye rolled her eyes.
"Please. You guys are such babies. It's not like either of you can pilot in the shape you're in. You actually expect me to fight off that many ships on my own?"
"Nope," Spike answered, then like lightning his hand darted past Faye and slapped the button to open the hatch.
"HEY!" Faye protested, slapping at his hand, but Spike was already on his way out. Faye battled with her seatbelt in attempt to stop him. "You idiot! You're going to get us ALL killed!"
Spike merely waved a dismissive hand as he started out...just before his knees began to buckle right under him. Jet caught him before he hit the ground, and just as quickly as it had happened, Spike started struggling to get out of his grip. "Look, I can pilot my own goddamn SHIP!" he said loudly, trying to shove Jet out of the way but failing miserably on account of his drastically weakened condition.
"Yeah, assuming you can even walk that far," Jet told him pointedly. He made Spike return to where he'd been sitting before, regardless of the dirty looks Spike gave him for it. "Besides, you've put us through enough shit to keep you alive this long; no way in hell are you gonna go and get yourself killed after all that."
Spike finally resorted to scowling at the floor; he knew as well as they did that it was pointless to attempt to pilot in his condition.
Satisfied, Jet turned around and proceeded to exit Red Tail.
"Wait, you're still going?" Faye asked shrilly.
Jet didn't bother to turn around. "What do you think?" With that, he slid out of Red Tail and climbed into the cockpit of Hammerhead.
Faye exhaled in exasperation, flopping back into her seat and picking up her communicator. "Okay, Ed, looks like you're only piloting one of the..." she trailed off as without a word, Vicious slipped out through the open hatch as well. "...Where do you think you're going?"
Vicious didn't dignify her with a response, instead heading straight for Swordfish II and swinging himself into the cockpit.
Faye stared at him open-mouthed for a second, then turned to Spike. "You won't let Ed pilot your precious ship, but you're going to let him do it?" she asked, her voice rising in pitch with each word. Spike's eyes remained closed, and his arm absently moved over the crudely-treated gash in his abdomen.
"He knows how to fly her," he answered quietly. Faye blinked at him.
"He...does? Since when?" Spike's eyes opened, and he looked straight into hers.
"Since he was with me when I first picked her up."
"...Oh." Faye slowly turned back around and started up Red Tail's engine again.
None of the ships' pilots bothered to contact each other; at once, all three ships took off towards the end of the tunnel.
Know what...I love Faye. She is such fun to write for. I just thought I'd share. (scampers off)
To my insanely sensational reviewers:
Picon-Italy? o.o Wow. Sounds awesome. I think some of your questions were answered in this chapter...? Hm, well, in any case, thanks for your nifty review, as always. Have fun in Italy!
VanillaRose-Ramble! Please do! Ramble away, I love it! n.n Lol, your review was such fun to read. As for Jer, well, what can ya really do about him? No need to inconvenience yourself by jumping into the fanfiction world on his account, though (granted, he'd probably be kinda flattered...XD). Sadly, I cannot answer your questions—hopefully this chapter and, if not, the following ones will do the job instead. :)
jdchs-Lol, ya caught me ;P The way I see it, if it's the sort of thing you love to read, why not write what you'd want to see happen? (shrug) And thank you very much, I'm glad you liked that scene. n.n
Shteve-;P You and your Star Wars...well for the record, I thought up Jer's bo staff way before I knew a double-sided lightsaber existed. So there. :P Anyway, glad ya liked the action. I know you've been waiting for it, so hopefully it's all you hoped for. And a bag of chips. o.o And there's still more coming...
phoenix521-n.n Faye indeed! Couldn't very well leave her completely out of the action, could I? She's too...Faye. o.O...Yeah...well, I'm so glad you're intrigued! Hopefully this and the following chapters won't disappoint. :)