Chapter 10: Betrayal
In the ISSP armory Kyle was watching and listening as Ed brought him up to speed on things. She was going off into a detailed account on how the Terminator's neural net brain worked when his radio tuned to the police band squawked to life.
"All units respond to reports of shots fired." One voice started.
"Heavy weapons may be involved." Another said. "Number of suspects unknown, proceed with extreme caution." More bulletins came through.
"All units be warned, possible involvement of suspect wanted in the Moving Target shootout." That sounded suspicious to Kyle. Only John knew what the Terminator looked like. How could they know?
"Unit twelve reporting multiple explosions in area 539!! Send all available units."
"Guess they started the show." Kyle stated and turned the radio down. There was nothing on the TV yet and bad news kept on coming over the radio. An ISSP vehicle had been found shot up and reduced to a burning hulk. There was a rumor that an officer had been killed. The only good news was that they didn't name any suspects. "The only thing we can do know now is wait." At his feet Ein let out a loud whine. "Sorry buddy but there's nothing we can do." Ein let out another whine and lied down. Like John Kyle had learned not to ask questions anymore and accepted the fact that Ein seemed to understand everything they said.
"They'll come back." Ed stated confidently. "They always come back."
"I'm sure they will, but it's not going to do us any good to worry about it. Let's get back to business. I think you were talking about the microchip these things use." Ed smiled and brought up the projection of the chip.
"This makes machines very smart." Ed explained. "It lets them learn."
"There has to be more then that. Dogs can learn things to but that just means they associate words with actions." Ein gave him an annoyed growl. "Touchy, isn't he?"
"That's because he didn't like what you said." Ed said cheerfully. "Ein doesn't like it when people say he is dumb." Ein barked in agreement.
"I'm not saying he's dumb. I'm just saying that…." Ein barked again and walked over to Tomato. "Now what's he up to?" In response Ein began pressing keys with his paw and opened a schematic file of the chip. Kyle's eyes widened and his jaw fell. Ed giggled at his reaction and was it his imagination or did Ein actually seem smug? "Just how smart is that mutt!?" He asked.
"Edward can't tell. It's a secret." Ed replied mischievously. She then started looking around to see if anyone was listening, despite the obvious fact no one was. "Can you keep a secret?" She whispered. Kyle was still confused but shrugged.
"What's one more?" He replied. Her answer couldn't be anything stranger then everything else he had heard tonight.
"Ein is a data dog. That means he's very smart." Ed stated.
[So much for not being surprised.] Kyle thought to himself, though it did make sense. Ein understood English perfectly and was smarter then some people he knew. Of course it also illegal, but he was breaking at least a dozen laws by helping John and the others. Then there was the Terminator, no telling how many laws that thing broke. The law had taken a back seat and Kyle decided he might as well go with it. He walked over to Ein and crouched down. "Sorry about the mutt crack. Apology accepted?" He asked and held out his hand. Ein barked then put his paw out, which Kyle shook. "Good. Now that we've got that cleared up." He turned toward Ed. "I've got some questions that…" He was cut off as both Tomato and his own alarm began beeping. Pushing a button Ed opened a window that showed the others approaching the outside door. Going over to his control console he saw the same thing on his monitors. All four of them looked disheveled and tired and Jet was carrying something other then his weapon. Kyle couldn't tell what but he opened the doors and let them in. Opening the office and the blast door the three went out to meet them.
"We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!!!" John said triumphantly before anyone else could say anything.
"Looks like you had a hell of a time doing it." Kyle responded.
"You don't know the half of it." Jet put in.
"Not exactly what you expected?" Kyle asked.
"I think the fact that three of us are out of ammunition says everything." Spike answered.
"That reminds me." John said. He tossed the SAW to Kyle. "Two words. Completely useless."
"You're the one who chose it." Kyle reminded him. "Anyone else want a trade in?"
"I think we're through with this stuff." Jet said as he unslung his own weapon. "None of them had that much effect unless we aimed for the weakest point, and I doubt we're going to get another chance like we did tonight, with everything going in our favor."
"Speak for yourself." Faye said, brandishing her grenade launcher. "This was able to slow it down and I'm keeping it." She headed towards the ammunition room to reload.
"If you say so." Kyle said as he took Jet's weapon. "So you guys manage to find out anything new?"
"Yeah, that we need a howitzer to even make a dent in it." Faye's voice answered sarcastically from the ammo room.
"Sorry but I'm fresh out of howitzers." Kyle responded as they put the weapons back.
"Actually we do need another favor." Jet said.
"What's that?" Kyle asked, not really wanting to hear what it was.
"We're going to pay Cyberdyne a visit and if they are the ones that made that Terminator we're going to have to make sure they can't make another."
"I get it." Kyle said in understanding. "What do you need?"
"How much of that C4 do you have?" Spike asked.
"About three hundred pounds." Kyle answered. The others looked at him like he had grown another head. "What?"
"You said you had some C4." John told him. "Three hundred pounds isn't what I'd call some." Kyle shrugged.
"When the average take is over five hundred pounds per bust three hundred isn't that much." The others still looked at him like he was a maniac, except for Spike, who started to grin.
"We'll take all of it." He said. Now everyone looked at him like he was nuts. "Better safe then sorry."
"Guess we can't argue with that." John sighed. "Let's start loading it up."
"You've got transportation?" Kyle asked.
"We, borrowed, a van on our way back here." John told him. "Something that wouldn't be missed."
"Guess I shouldn't be surprised." Kyle said. "Lets get moving."
"Before I forget." Jet spoke up. "We've got something for Ed to look at."
"You brought Ed a souvenir?" Ed asked excitedly.
"Something like that." Jet told her. He brought out the Terminator skull. Ein growled and Kyle gave the skull a suspicious look but Ed's eyes lit up.
"WOW!" She squealed and grabbed the skull out of Jet's hands. "This is for Ed?" She asked as she examined it.
"That's right." Jet told her. "We want you to take a look at this thing's memory and see if there's anything useful. But not until we get everything ready, we're going to want to see what's in there."
While they were preparing for their 'visit' to Cyberdyne the side street where they had destroyed the Terminator had been cordoned off by police. In addition to the officers milling around the area there were also several men in dark suits overseeing their actions. Slowly they scoured the entire area, picking up pieces of the shattered machine. All of the cops were on the Dragons' payroll of course but the destruction of one of their most secret projects prompted the elders to send members of their personal guard to make sure no evidence of the Terminator's existence was found. In a black car across the street Vicious observed the clean up. He saw one officer pick up and examine a metallic arm before handing it over to one of the suits who then put it in a waiting armored car.
"Radical Edward has put the information we gave him to very good use." Vicious remarked as several officers struggled to lift the torso section and carry it over to the armored car. "Wire a transfer to him at once. The five million Woolong bounty we posted should be sufficient. Make sure to monitor the account, once he accepts it we should be able to track him down." The driver of the car nodded, not bothering to ask questions. It was well known how Vicious repaid loyalty, especially if you might become an inconvenience later. Whether they would kill Radical Edward or just keep him under surveillance until he became useful again was something only Vicious knew. "Drive." He ordered. The driver started the engine but his hand went up to the ear radio he was wearing. "What is it?"
"There might be a problem." The driver replied.
"For us or for them?" Vicious asked. To have something go wrong now would jeopardize his plan.
"For them. It looks like they can't find the head."
"Interesting." Vicious said, a shadow of a smile on his face. "It appears they had the foresight to take it with them. The secrets they learn from it should be very intriguing."
"Do we proceed with Cyberdyne?" The driver asked.
"No. They no doubt know about Cyberdyne's connection with this so we'll let them have their turn first. If they fail we may have take care of this ourselves. Back to headquarters. Those corpses will want to question anyone that might be involved in this." The diver said nothing and obeyed.
Back at the armory the adults finished loading the bricks of C4 into the van and in addition each of them took several grenades. The Bebop crew stuffed them into their pockets while John and Kyle attached them to their vests. Meanwhile Ed was trying to hook up the skull to Tomato but had run into problems. The skull had no external ports to plug into and while she had found what looked like an access panel it had proved almost impossible to remove. She tired prying it open with he fingers, banging the skull onto the floor as hard as she could, none of it worked. Finally out of desperation she tried biting it. The only thing she succeeded in doing was hurting her teeth, dropping the skull and grabbing her mouth to make sure they were all there and in one piece. The skull landed right side up and with its permanent smile seemed to be laughing at Ed. The frustration finally wearing away even her patience she kicked the skull with all her strength, and nailed John right in the forehead as he entered the office. The impact knocked him flat on his back and almost made him bowl over the others behind him. Off to the side they saw the skull spinning and it slowly spun to a stop. John was still lying on back with his eyes closed, apparently unconscious. Before the others could do anything Ed and Ein came running out of the office. Ed jumped onto John's stomach and if he wasn't awake before he was now, letting out a loud 'oomph!' and sitting up slightly.
"What….?" Was as far as he got before Ed had him in a bear hug of surprising strength. "GAAAAK!"
"Edward is sorry. Didn't mean to hurt John person! Glad to see he's ok."
"He's not going to be ok for long if you keep squeezing him like that." Spike said. Ed looked up and saw John turning a bright shade of red from lack of air. She let go of him and he fell back to the floor.
"Oops. Sorry." She said and smiled sheepishly. John groaned, closed his eyes and put his hand over the quickly growing bruise on his forehead.
"I thought we were friends Ed." John said in a joking fashion that told the others he wasn't angry.
"Not Ed's fault." Ed protested. "Mean skull wouldn't open up for Edward, so Edward kicked it."
"And with great aim I might add." Kyle said as he picked up the skull. John snarled at the remark and to everyone's surprise Ein did the same. "Boy you'd think a data dog would have a sense of humor."
"Maybe he just knows who his friends are." John replied. Ein barked in agreement. Kyle shrugged and began to examine the skull and found the panel that Ed had been struggling with. Taking out a pocketknife he extended the blade and used it to pry at the panel, having slightly more success then Ed.
"Looks like you managed to loosen it up John, thanks." Kyle said.
"No problem." John replied, still not moving or even opening his eyes. Ein walked over and licked his hand. "Nice to see everyone so worried about my wellbeing." He said as he finally sat up. "So far only Ed and Ein were concerned if I was hurt or not."
"That reminds me." Kyle said as he continued to pry. "You didn't seem that surprised that our furry little friend here is a data dog."
"After hanging around these guys nothing surprises me anymore." John answered as he scratched Ein behind the ears. "Besides he's better company then most people I know." The others laughed but Kyle's face remained blank.
"Funny." He grumbled. With a snap the panel flew off the skull. "Got it. Damn!" The last statement was in response to the fact that even though he had opened it his knife was now bent almost ninety degrees.
"Now let's see what this thing has to tell us." Jet said as he took the skull and tossed it to Ed. They went into the office and Ed set the skull next to Tomato, and started to hook it up when Kyle's radio came to life.
"Base calling post three. Base calling post three. Come in post three. Kyle you there? Over." Kyle motioned for the others to be quiet before picking up the mike.
"This is post three base. I'm here."
"Good." The voice on the other end sounded relieved. "Weird stuff has been going on and we need to know how widespread it is."
"Well everything has been quiet here base." Kyle lied. "What's the situation?"
"If you don't know about it you're better off." The voice responded. "But they are going to have to send a few guys over for a statement." The five of them exchanged glances, all knowing that they had been found out. Kyle removed the gun from his holster. "Just a routine thing, you should…" He didn't get any farther as Kyle smashed the radio with the butt of the gun.
"That's our cue to leave." Spike said as they went into action. Jet grabbed the Terminator skull while John picked up Ed who maintained a death grip on Tomato and Kyle picked Ein up by the scruff of his neck. With Spike and Faye covering they made their way to the van. Jet and Spike got into the front seats while the others piled into the back. Jet started the engine and drove at regular speed away from the armory, not wanting to draw attention to themselves. They all tensed up as the sound of sirens approached them, but the cruisers that they saw approaching passed by them without a second glance.
"Well what do we do now?" John asked.
"For now we find someplace to hide until things have calmed down a little." Jet answered. "Once there aren't so many cops on the street we'll go to Cyberdyne as planned."
"You have someplace in mind?" Spike asked.
"Yep." Was all Jet said.
As they made their way towards Jet's mystery location Vicious was entering the elder's chamber. He had expected them to be furious when they received the news that their new toy had been blown to scrap but they seemed almost relaxed.
"We have received some very distressing news." Wang Long started.
"Several hours ago there were attacks on two of our facilities by unknown forces, and very valuable information was stolen from our data banks by a hacker." Ping Long continued
"And no more then twenty minutes ago our newest agent was killed." Sou Long finished. "A most interesting string of events."
"Very interesting." Vicious said, almost sounding bored. "But what does this have to do with me?"
"There have been rumors that you were somehow involved in these events." Wang Long said. Vicious kept his face impassive. "But there were no survivors at the first facility and it is claimed that you were not seen at the second." Keeping that second scientist alive had proven to be a wise choice. "And we can not tell who was truly responsible for the data theft." Vicious understood what they were saying. Even though he had covered his tracks completely they were still sure he had somehow been involved in all this.
"And you want me to investigate these attacks?" Vicious asked, the arrogance in his voice evident. Instead of being angry the elders actually smiled.
"These events have already been investigated." Ping Long said. "And a decision has already been made."
"We know who is responsible for the death of our agent." Sou Long continued. "What must be done now is to seek them out and destroy them. You have already made your stance on our new agents so you will not be trusted with this delicate assignment." Now Vicious was becoming angry.
"So why was I summoned if I'm not to take part?" He asked.
"Because we thought you should see who has been entrusted with this." Wang Long said and motioned for someone to step forward. Vicious became truly angry when he saw who it was. Five large men stepped out of the shadows, all dressed in black combat gear. There were slight variations in the face and hair but the blank expressions, the alert but dead eyes, the way all of them had the exact same posture, all pointed to one thing. These weren't some special forces team that had been cobbled together, they were Terminators. The elders were so sure he knew the truth about the project that they were trying to trap him. He wasn't about to give them the satisfaction.
"One genetic monstrosity fails so you think five more will succeed?" He asked.
"We are quite sure of it." Sou Long answered. "With these agents and the right information in the right places it will not be long until the last of the true threats are eliminated." He turned toward the squad of Terminators. "You will begin your mission immediately. Proceed as ordered." The five machines turned and marched out of the room in perfect unison. Vicious glared after them.
"You disapprove?" Wang Long asked.
"If one artificial soldier failed others are destined to fail in the same way." He told them, still not giving anything away.
"So you say." Ping Long replied. "It would be wise if you stop trying to interfere in matters that you know nothing about." Vicious narrowed his eyes but said nothing, knowing it would be what they wanted.
"Is there anything else?" Vicious asked.
"You are permitted to leave." Wang Long answered. Vicious turned and walked out. He knew there would be more then one of those machines but the corpses had hidden their location too well. Even he didn't know how to fight five of them at once, and moving against Cyberdyne with suspicions against him growing was not an option. Things were beginning to slip from his control; he couldn't even send the new information to Radical Edward to relay it, anything he did would be closely monitored. He could only watch and see what Spike and his group could do.
While Vicious was plotting his next move the group in question was gathered in the back room of a pawnshop with a TV tuned to the news and Ed hooking Tomato to the Terminator's skull. When they had first arrived Joe had been a bit hesitant about hiding a known fugitive, but the promise of money had quickly changed his mind. The fugitive in question was now watching the TV and holding an icepack to his forehead.
"So how's your head?" Faye asked rhetorically.
"Just great." John answered sarcastically.
"Guess that would be divine justice." Jet spoke up. John gave him a quizzical look. "You getting hit with that skull is payback for clobbering me with that bedpan."
"That was an accident!" John protested.
"So was that." Jet replied, pointing at John's bruised forehead. "What goes around comes around." John grumbled something about 'philosophy garbage' before turning his attention back to the TV.
"Edward is ready!" Ed announced as she inserted the last cable. The others quickly gathered around. Once her audience was gathered Ed pressed a button and activated the connection.
"Scanning." MPU said. "Access established." He announced after a few minutes. No sooner had he said that then things began to go wrong. The screen got very dim and static drowned out most of what MPU was saying. "Ed…" bzzzzzt "invading….." bzzzzzzzzztttttt "can't stop….." bzzzzzzt
"MPU!!" Ed cried and began to frantically type.
"What is it?! What the hell is going on?!?!" Faye yelled.
"Oh shit!! Look!!" John pointed at the skull on the floor. Before its eyes were dark but now they had a slight glow to them.
"He's drawing energy from the battery." Jet looked from the skull back to Tomato. "It's trying to download itself!" The realization hit them hard, no one expected the AI to still be active let alone be this aggressive if given a chance.
"The hell it is!" Kyle said and reached for the skull. When his hand was almost to it the skull actually shot him with an electrical charge that knocked him to the ground. "DAMN IT!!!!" He yelled as he clutched his still stinging arm that was quickly going numb. The other four took out their guns and aimed them at the motionless skull when its eyes abruptly went dark again.
"What happened? Did Ed stop it?" John asked. A moan from Ed gave him his answer.
"Wrong, wrong all wrong. Ed can't find MPU." She groaned as she searched her files. She didn't get far before one of her own smiley faces popped up on the screen. "Huh?" She said in confusion. That was not a good sign. If Ed didn't know what was going on with her own computer it had to be bad, and sure enough it began to get worse. The smiley face, what looked like a yellow childish drawing with a grin that took up most of the face with its eyes shut, began to warp. First the color changed, from a bright yellow it slowly turned a shade of gray. Its features began to shift, instead of a flat looking drawing it began to stretch and take shape into a 3D projection of a human head. It didn't stop there, it began to become more detailed. Its grin shrunk from its enormous size to a normal sized one. Only instead of being bright and cheerful this smile was cold and menacing. Finally its eyes, which had remained shut, opened, revealing a pair of glowing red orbs. All of them, even Ed, sat in silence as they watched the harmless picture Ed always used warp into an exact duplicate of a Terminator skull. As they watched in stunned silence the skull looked around itself, observing its new surroundings. Finally it looked straight at the group. That was weird, but what was weirder was that it seemed to recognize them. And it was not happy to see them. Giving an inhuman yell it seemed to charge right at them, and thanks to Ed's monitor it was able to project a partial hologram that gave the illusion it was coming through the screen, causing everyone, even Ed, to jump back from it. The hologram disintegrated and the skull that represented the Terminator's AI vanished, leaving the screen blank. A second later red lines of code began to scroll by at a rapid rate. Occasionally a section of green code came up but they turned red and rearranged themselves. Ed went into action and began to rapidly type.
"I don't get it. What's happening?" Kyle asked. Feeling starting to come back into his arm and he focused his attention on Tomato's screen.
"That thing's AI is acting like a virus. It's spreading through her files and taking them over." Jet answered. Knowing a bit more about computers then the others he could recognize what was going on. The others became quiet, knowing the only thing they could do was watch. As Ed continued to type the scrolling red code lines slowed from several lines a second to single letters at a very slow pace. Slowly the lines of red code were replaced with the original green code. Another inhuman scream came from Tomato and the AI skull reappeared on the screen. It looked right at Ed and gave what sounded like the growl of a wounded animal. A large, extremely angry, wounded animal. Ed put on her netdiving goggles and growled right back at it.
"You hurt MPU! Ed won't let you get away with it!" Ed told the AI which seemed to snarl at her in response. That snarl quickly vanished as Ed began typing faster and it seemed to convulse in pain. Behind him the red lines of code, his programming, was being deleted and replaced. The AI construct seemed to concentrate and the red code lines again began to over take Ed's. "Skull head might be smart but Edward is smarter." She told the thing and began typing at what seemed like an inhuman rate. The red code began disappearing at a faster pace and the AI skull began to snap itself from side to side, it's inhuman voice screaming in agony. In a fit of anger it tried again to counter Ed's programming that made the screen flicker and crackle with static, its animal like growl louder then ever. Ed again was able to counter and parts of the AI's skull began to break away as Ed began to delete its core programming. In a final act of desperation the skull disappeared from the screen. Next to Tomato the eyes of the real skull had again begun to glow red.
"He's making a run for it." Spike said, pointing at the skull. Ed broke into a devilish grin.
"Wherever he goes Ed will follow." She promised and continued typing. The screen changed to a red tint and the AI skull appeared out of nowhere. Letting out another yell, this one of fear, the AI skull turned and began to run, ducking into doors that represented different files. Every time it tried to hide Ed made the door disintegrate in a shower of pixels and it would flee to another. Its attempts to escape began to get more frantic as its files were opened. "You can run but cannot hide from Ed." She told it and pressed one last button. The AI skull stopped moving and began to thrash from side to side, yelling in pain. Rapidly it began to turn back into the smiley face it had been before the Terminator AI had taken it over. As the last of the AI skull faded to nothing it let out an ear piercing metallic shriek, one that was echoed from the real skull and was so loud that they had to cover their ears. Once the screeching subsided they looked at Tomato's screen and saw it was occupied by the smiley face with the large grin that let out a childish laugh. The adults were stunned silent. Ed had just done the impossible; she had out thought a thinking machine.
"Nice work Ed." John said, giving her a pat on the back.
"If I hadn't seen it I never would have believed it." Kyle said. Other people were less then happy with what happened.
"Hey! What the hell is going on back there!?! I can barely hear my TV!!" Joe's voice said from out front.
"So turn up the volume!!" Jet shot back. Joe didn't respond but they knew what he was probably mumbling under his breath. A burst of static from Tomato focused their attention back to it.
"Ed?" Said MPU's confused voice.
"Welcome back MPU." Ed greeted. "Are you feeling ok?"
"Yes I am." MPU replied as he became more aware of what was happening. "I must apologize for not being able to stop the intruder. I put all of you at risk."
"Not your fault MPU." Ed told him.
"That's right." John agreed. "You couldn't know that the AI was still active. None of us did."
"I understand." MPU answered.
"Now that the excitement is over I think we should get back to the reason we did this in the first place." Jet said putting them back on track. "Let's see what this Terminator has to show us."
"Very well." MPU replied. "I'm afraid there is a problem." He said after a few minutes of searching.
"What kind of problem?" Faye asked, not wanting anymore surprises.
"It appears that Ed's pursuit of the intruding AI has resulted in the destruction of the files in the Terminator's data banks." Jet sighed and Faye let out a frustrated groan. Spike gave an indifferent shrug.
"Guess Edward made a little mistake." Ed said sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck. "Sorry." Faye was about to make a remark but John cut her off.
"Don't be." John said. "If you didn't do what you did that AI would have taken over and we would all be in deep trouble."
"So what now?" Kyle asked.
"We go to Cyberdyne. They're the only ones left that have any information about these things." Jet said.
"And what about this?" John asked, pointing at the skull.
"It's useless now so we might as well just toss it into a sewer." Spike suggested.
"So we're going to Cyberdyne with no information about what might be there." Faye said. "Isn't there anything that'll go our way?" In what seemed to be a response to her question from the TV came the familiar combination of a horn and banjos signaling the start of Big Shot.
"Hey amigos, this is Big Shot." Punch started.
"The guide to the biggest bounties in the solar system." Judy finished.
"Well amigos we got a bunch of big bounties today." Punch stated. "First up we got a five million Woolong bounty on this desperado." A photo of the Terminator from the shootout at the Blue Snakes building appeared on screen. "What's really strange is pictures are all we have of this guy. No age, no birth planet, not even a name."
"A mystery man." Judy said excitedly. "What's he wanted for sugar?"
"This guy is wanted for being muy brave or muy loco. He walked into a building full of armed men then blew it up. As you can see he is one stupid but tough bandito." They played the footage of Vega shooting the Terminator twice and the Terminator not reacting.
"I guess even we can catch a break every once in a while." Spike remarked, slightly amused.
"Who would have thought?" Faye added. Punch finished talking about the Terminator bounty and they turned their attention back to the TV.
"The other bounties we have today are brand new and Big Shot is the first to let you know about them." Punch said. They all watched with interest but that interest turned to shock as pictures of them started appearing on the screen. Pictures of Spike, Jet and Faye appeared at the top of the screen while John and Kyle's appeared at the bottom. "These five are a gang that the police say are very dangerous terrorists. They had their eyes on these three," The top three pictures were highlighted. "ever since they decided to shoot up the town a few months back." They played stock footage of the disastrous vehicle pursuit of the Predator, complete with Faye crashing into a crowded street and Jet sinking into the bay. "They thought they were acting pretty strange and they were right on the money."
"But what about these two sugar?" Judy asked. The bottom two pictures became highlighted. "They don't look like the kind of people to hang out with those three villains."
"Afraid it's true Judy. Don't know why these two officers of the law decided to switch sides but that's what they did. We do know that they broke into an ISSP armory then killed a police detective."
"Oh dear no!!" Judy exclaimed.
"It's sad but it's true. They cornered the poor detective and this is what happened." A picture was shown of a burned out, bullet riddled police cruiser. "The detective's name isn't being released because the suspects are still loose, so lets help track down these bastards." Faye's eye began to twitch and Kyle started to reach for his gun.
"Easy now." Jet warned. The others didn't acknowledge but they didn't do anything either.
"The bounty for each one of them is ten million. If you manage to catch all five of them there is a twenty million Woolong bonus."
"A big pay off for a bad bunch of people." Judy said. "Good luck all you cowboys out there and happy hunting." Jet expected everyone to explode but John calmly walked over and turned the TV off. Turning around he stood calmly, surprising everyone. It didn't last long. After about two seconds John whirled around, grabbed the TV, ripped it from the wall, and with a yell of rage threw it across the room where it was smashed into dozens of pieces.
"Feel better?" Faye asked, knowing just how he felt.
"Much." John answered. They all smirked at the remark but Spike addressed the immediate concern.
"Jet, how trustworthy is you friend?"
"He'd sell out his own mother." Jet replied. Knowing what was about to happen they took up positions. The door to the room opened inward and Jet stood in position so when the door was opened he would be behind it. Spike stood on the other side right next to the door. It must have taken some time for Joe to work up the courage to do this because it was a few minutes before they heard footsteps coming their way. The door flew open and they saw Joe standing there holding a double-barreled shotgun.
"All right, FREEZE!!" He managed to say before Spike reached over and took the weapon out of his hand.
"Thanks." Spike said calmly before Joe had a chance to react. When the door had swung open Jet had caught it and when he heard the signal gave the door a hard shove so it swung back and hit Joe with a loud crunch. The door slowly swung back open revealing Joe, who was still standing and clutching his now bleeding nose.
"By node!! Euu broke by node!!" He said in a stunned voice. Seeing her chance to get out some frustration about what she saw on Big Shot Faye walked over and kicked Joe between the legs. Joe tried to yell but all that came out was a high-pitched squeak.
"And your nose doesn't hurt anymore now does it?" Faye said sweetly. The only reply she got was a whimper. "Your turn." She said to Kyle.
"You got it." He replied, smiling. Joe made another pitiful whimper before Kyle hit him with an uppercut that sent him to the floor unconscious.
"Now that everybody has got that out of their system." Jet said, noting the grins the statement brought. All of them felt the same way about the lies that had been spread about them, and they needed to take that aggression out on something and Joe was as good as anything. He looked at the clock on the wall that read 11:00. "Cyberdyne will close in about an hour and sneaking around it'll probably take us that long to get there. So we'd better get moving."
"What about him?" Spike asked, looking at the unconscious Joe.
"Don't worry. I know just what to do." Jet answered. A few minutes later they had Joe tied up and locked in the bathroom. As an added touch Jet made a list of all the illegal things Joe had and where they hidden, and left it on the counter where the cops would be sure to find it when they came to investigate Joe's 'disappearance'. They all piled into the van and Jet headed for Cyberdyne, not really knowing what they would find.