Three days later

Io

Spike's eyes widened as the missile hurled towards him. He pushed the yoke of the Swordfishdown and to the left; the ship obeyed instantly, the missile, unable to follow the movement hurled by, a little too close for comfort.

The ship that had fired the missile began to open up with the rear mounted gun turret that had been placed on it.

Tracers arced up towards him, but Spike made the Swordfishnimbly twist and turn out of the path of the rounds.

The ship which was so intent on killing him was piloted by two men that Spike wanted to catch very badly. The Fren Brothers were wanted on Io, Ganymede, and several asteroid belt colonies. They had killed a few cops and bystanders in a string of robberies that had taken them across the Solar System. They had a nice bounty on their head, four million woolongs, if they could be brought in, alive, together, one or the other was only worth a million.

So needless to say, it was a sound investment to make sure he didn't blow them and their ship out of the sky.

It'd taken him awhile to track these two bastards down, had to chase them across almost the whole damned solar system.

But it would be worth it.

Spike used his targeting computer to try and aim for the engines of the ship the Fren brothers were in, they might come down a little hard, but at worst they would probably have a concussion. The bounty was paid for living people, even if they needed some medical attention.

Spike focused on trying to get a good lock on their engines, not easy considering they were doing their best to kill him. Finally, the computer chimed at him, he had the perfect spot to shoot now. His finger moved to the trigger…

"Hey, I'll help out!" chimed a voice over his comm system.

Oh no.

The voice was deep and womanly, the kind of voice that you could spend hours listening to, the type of voice that could ONLY belong to a gorgeous woman. No doubt that voice had or would seduce a great many men with its silky tone.

Spike however, knew better.

"Faye! Back off, this is my bounty!" he snarled back at her.

Damnit, he lost the lock on the engines, he was already getting pissed off.

A noise over his shoulder caused him to look back. Faye's zip craft; the Red Tail was behind and above him slightly. He saw that she had armed her missile launcher.

"Faye, don't!" spike barely got to choke the words out before she fired.

The missiles streaked by him, slamming into the Fren Brothers' ship. The missiles exploded with a terrific double explosion. The ship it seemed couldn't decided whether to crash or break apart, so in order to save time, it did both.

It smashed into the desert surface of Io with a tremendous crash sending pieces of debris everywhere, sand was thrown up in all directions with tremendous force. Spike sighed as he watched the display. Well, he still had to be SURE.

Setting the Swordfish down near the wreckage, he climbed out and walked over to where what appeared to be the main hull of the ship, he moved to a large hole that had been blown in the side of the ship, pulling himself slightly inside the ship to have a better look at the interior.

Yeah, there was no collecting this bounty.

"Well? You find them?" asked Jet over the comm device Spike had on him.

"What's left of them," said Spike into the device as he shook what was left of a human being off of his hand, "Yuck."

"Great work Faye, no brothers, no bounty," crackled Jet over the comm.

"Hey I'm sorry! How was I supposed to know they would have such a flimsy ship!" retorted Faye.

"I'm coming back, send a message to the cops about this," said Spike, walking back to the Swordfish

"What should I tell them?" said Jet.

"Bring a sponge."

The Bebop

Orbit of Io

"Damnit Faye! Why in the hell did you get involved in our bounty!" yelled Jet.

"Because you two didn't cut me in on it! I couldn't very well stand by and let you guys hog the entire bounty now could I?"

Spike had a cigarette clutched between his lips, dangling precariously. Occasionally he would take a puff on it, but for the most part just let it burn out while watching the smoke lazily drift upwards. He sat on the sofa in the Bebop's his arms out to either side of him on the back of the well worn sofa. Every so often he would glance at Jet and Faye, engaged in their argument, a few times he'd almost drifted asleep, but the cigarette ashes that drifted down and burnt him woke him up. He'd yelled at Faye when they first go back, but now, what was the point? Yelling wouldn't make him feel better nor would it bring the bounty back.

"-isn't that right Spike?" said Jet suddenly turning towards Spike who finally came back into the real world.

"Wha-?" asked Spike blankly.

Jet gritted his teeth, "I was saying that Faye has been nothing but a drain on us ever since she got here."

"Hey! It's not like you two have even caught a real bounty recently!" retorted Faye.

"She's got us there," said Spike.

Jet sat back on one of the other sofas, crossed his arms and closed his eyes, "I give up, if neither of you two care about how many woolongs we lost out on this job, why the hell should I?"

"Relax Jet, something else will come along. Something always does," Faye helpfully put in.

"Yeah, and we always happen to lose out on that something," Jet rumbled back, his arms still crossed.

Spike's cigarette finally reach its end, putting it out in a nearby ashtray on the table in front of him Spike turned to Ed who was sitting nearby.

"Ed is there anything being mentioned on the net?" asked Spike.

"Nope!" Ed cheerfully responded.

"Nothing at all?"

"Nothiiiiiiing!" Ed sang back.

Spike sighed, "Guess our something is going to take its time finding us."

"There's a lot of talk going on over military channels though," Ed suddenly said.

This roused Jet out of his brooding; uncrossing his arms he leaned forward towards Ed who was sitting on the floor on her computer a few feet directly in front of him, Ein sleeping peacefully next to her. "What kind of talk?"

"Hard to make out. They are talking to each other…about cards?" Ed glanced quizzically at the group of bounty hunters before turning her attention back to the computer that was in front of her.

"Cards? That's really wie- hey, aren't military channels restricted?" said Faye.

"Not when you know the right things to say and Ed does!" Ed chirped back.

All three bounty hunters groaned at the same time, "I don't want to know Ed," was uttered simultaneously by all three.

"Besides why should we care about what the military does? Its not like they would ever post a bounty, they've got their own people to deal with that sort of thing," Jet said.

"Ed, can you keep an eye on it for us? Let us know if anything else is mentioned? Something like this might be worth keeping tabs on," Spike said while standing up.

"Where are you going?" Jet said as Spike made his way out of the room.

"To the shower, I think I still have some of the Fren brothers on me."