The Bebop

Pluto's moon, Charon

Four days later

"State your business," said the gruff looking controller on the other end of the commlink that Jet had opened up to the authorities that controlled Pluto.

"We're here to ask a prisoner of yours a few questions," replied Jet who sat directly in front of the screen so the guard could see him, Spike and Faye stood to either side of him, just out of view. Ed was fast asleep in a corner of the room, Ein lying on her stomach.

"And how do I know that you aren't here to try to break said prisoner out of our lovely establishment?" said the guard.

"Because we're bounty hunters."

The man snorted, "That's hardly reassuring, bounty hunters are scum, you people are barely above the people that we house here."

"That's not a very accommodating attitude," replied Jet.

"Why should I be accommodating? We're not exactly within easy reach of the authorities. As long as no one busts out of here, the ISSP doesn't come breathing down our necks."

Jet sighed, "Fine, but I hate to bring him into it."

"Him who?" asked the man with a bored expression on his face

"Marcus Miró."

The name snaps the guy into the current century.

"Yeah right, like you know the boss."

"Oh but we do, and he owes us a favor or two, if you don't believe me, just tell him that Jet and Spike are here to talk to him."

The man looked Jet squarely in the eye, or at least as well as he could from his side of the communications.

"I'll pass the word along to Marcus, if you're lying to me. You'd better be out of the system by the time I get back."

"We'll be here."

The screen flickered off.

"That went well," said Spike.

Jet leaned back slightly his expression slightly pained, "I was really hoping that we wouldn't have to get a hold of Marcus to do all this."

"How exactly does the administrator of the Pluto Prison Colony owe both of you a favor?" Faye asked inquisitively.

Spike and Jet glanced at each other uncomfortably.

"We don't like to talk about it," Jet snapped.

"Oh come on…" Faye responded, her voice sounding like she was coercing a child to jump into a swimming pool when it couldn't swim.

"You tell her Jet, I hate telling stories," Spike said, lighting a cigarette.

Jet grunted in response.

"Awhile ago we nabbed a bounty in the Asteroid Belt. However, the terms of the bounty were that the guy we caught be brought directly to Pluto to the authorities there."

"Directly to Pluto? That's unusual," said Faye interrupting, "normally you would just drop them off at the closest police facility."

"Yeah, we know. However, the bounty paid pretty good and we took the guy to Pluto. It turned out to be a setup. The guy we captured had hacked into the net and had posted his own bounty."

"He WANTED to be taken to Pluto? Why not just go there himself?" Faye asked.

Jet gestured with his mechanical arm at the monitor that was still black. "Because Pluto has a tight security net around it, Marcus ensures that his men are equipped with some of the best weapons money can buy. As you noticed, getting onto Pluto itself isn't easy. All incoming traffic has to go through Charon first. If it attempts to land on Pluto itself, it is blown out of the sky. Only one ship is allowed to take prisoners to or from the surface of Pluto."

"What ship is that?"

Jet smiled a slightly sarcastic smile, "Marcus knows his mythology. Pluto and Charon were both part of the Roman gods. Pluto was the god of the underworld and Charon was the boatman that ferried people across the river Styx. However, there was a guardian to the underworld, a three headed dog by the name of Cerberus. This, Marcus named the ship that goes to and from Pluto the Cerberus."

"Cute, then what happened?'

"Our bounty was taken down to Pluto, where he promptly freed several of his friends, they ran amok around the facility and for a few hours it seemed as if the entire place was going to go up in one massive riot."

"Wait, how come this was never on the news?"

"Pluto is a long way from anything resembling authority; also Marcus is also extremely good at paying off certain government officials to keep things quiet. But as I was saying, we were hired by Marcus to help put down the riot, we spent the next two days running around the Pluto facility trying to track down our former bounty. We finally caught up with him…" Jet trailed off.

"And then what happened?" Faye asked with genuine curiosity.

"Doesn't matter what happened," Spike suddenly interjected, stabbing the cigarette out as he did so. "We made it, he didn't, end of story."

"Aw come on! You can't just end the story like that!" Faye protested.

"He's right, it doesn't matter. Maybe when we have a little more time on our hands I'll finish the rest of the story for you."

Faye crossed her arms, pouting slightly, "You two are no good at stories anyway."

Spike snorted in amusement.

The screen where the guard's face had been suddenly flickered back into life, a different face was on screen this time. The face had several soft wrinkles in it, but they didn't detract from the man's appearance, they actually seemed to lend him an air of nobility. However, the expensive suit he wore more than helped the image that clearly this was a wealthy man. His hair which was black was cut short and sprinkled with white here and there, this combined with his Spanish skin and facial features helped make him pleasant to look at almost. He glared at them from behind a pair of spectacles which were perched on his short nose. His mouth was twisted into an expression of annoyance. His hands were placed together in front of him, palms and fingers together. He was seated in a plush chair behind a wooden desk. Upon seeing that he was indeed talking to Spike and Jet, his features relaxed somewhat.

"So it is you two, I never thought I would see you again," Marcus Miró said, his voice had a faint Spanish accent to it.

"Good to see you Marcus, how long has it been?" Jet said, smiling pleasantly into the screen.

"Long enough for your memory to fade it would seem, I told you both to not come back here, trouble follows both you and Mr. Spiegel like a cat chasing a mouse."

"You know we wouldn't be here if it wasn't important Marcus," Jet responded.

Marcus raised an eyebrow, "Oh really? And what important task made you return to my humble little corner of the Solar System?"

"We need to speak to one of your prisoners."

Marcus' lips tightened and his expression hardened, "Out of the question."

"What? Why not?" Jet responded.

"It seems your memory has faded quite a bit indeed, the last time you two set foot on my planet, you let loose a man that nearly cost me my job and my reputation."

"That wasn't our fault!" Jet yelled back at the screen.

Marcus shrugged, "Whether it was or not, you both were the catalyst for what occurred."

"But we did help you put the riot down."

"A riot you helped cause," Marcus retorted.

Faye suddenly grabbed the screen before Jet or Spike could react, she turned it so Marcus could see her and yelled, "Come on! All we want to do is talk to one lousy prisoner! Besides, its not like these two have any sort of prisoner with them this time, maybe you have time to play these kinds of games but I don't! If you won't let either of these two down to Pluto maybe you'll just let me down? Or maybe you think little old me will hurt your facility."

Jet and Spike stared at Faye in open surprise.

Jet suddenly snatched the screen out of Faye's grasp, "Ignore her Marcus we-"

Marcus raised a hand, "No, the lady did remind me of something. I am a businessman, and I let my personal feelings cloud my judgment on this matter. I'll allow you two down to the surface of Pluto to speak with whomever you want under one condition."

"What's that?" asked Jet.

"The lady spends an hour with me aboard the Cerberus."

Faye gawked at the screen, "Is he serious!" she yelled, "I'm not some kind of bargaining chip to be used when-"

"Deal," Spike suddenly said, cutting Faye off.

"Good, I will let my men know that you two are cleared to go down to the surface once the lady arrives here. I expect her to arrive at the Cerberus in fifteen minutes or the deal is off. Remember, she doesn't show up here, you two don't go down to Pluto."

The screen winked off before anyone could react.

Faye ground her teeth together and turned towards Spike, "Why did you do that?" she uttered slowly.

Spike shrugged and replied, "Hey you agreed that we've all got to work together on this."

Faye clenched her fists, clearly about to try to beat the living crap out of Spike.

"Hey, don't get mad at me. You're the one who suddenly jumped in on the conversation. Now, you should go freshen up, you have a date to go to," Spike smiled at her.

Faye turned and stalked off her fists still clenched.

Jet watched her go, "You know she's going to kill you after all this is said and done."

"Yeah, my record with women seems to run that way."

In the corner of the room, Ed began to snore.