Alright, I'm so happy I got reviews! Yay! I love this story! It's so much fun to write!

I do not own Jade or Pey'j or the game Beyond Good & Evil.

SnapShot

By Ryuu no Taiyo

Chapter Three

Solaris, the Hillys sun, was high in the sky when Jade woke up. She rubbed her eyes groggily and stretched, scratching the back of her neck.

Getting up, she walked over to the bathroom that was right next to her door and placed her hand on the switch to open the door.

She washed her face and decided not to take a bath right now. The sun was calling to her outside and in her opinion; a bright sun was perfect for photography.

She walked back to her large room and put some clothes on, opting for a pair of green pants and a white tank-top, grabbed the camera from her messy bed and put some of the cover back in order.

She walked downstairs, famished, and saw happily that Pey'j had left a K-Bups for her. Skipping over to the container where the food was stored (called a Refrion) and she took the sole K-Bups among all the Starkos.

The radio was on, and it was replaying the speech the governor had given last night.

Jade shook her head, shaking her long black hair around.

She decided to go find Pey'j and she knew just where to find him. Heading outside, she readied her camera for any good pictures.

She had to be prepared at all times. She was going to be the best reporter one day, with her own company and she'd take pictures of everything and place them for the world to see.

Right now she practised. Even if it was just a butterfly, she had to learn to capture it perfectly.

But there was nothing to shoot.

Sighing, she closed her camera and skipped over to the entrance to the Hangar and Pey'j's workshop.

Entering the stuffy and breaking down workshop, she said hello to Pey'j who was working on something at his desk.

"Hi Uncle."

"Hey. Jade. Didn't hear ya comin'."

He was extremely entranced in his work right now. Jade went to the brand new M-Disk Reader.

"Uncle. How much does an M-Disk reader cost?"

"A whole handful of units Jade."

Jade poked the slot, and quickly retrieved it as the machine made a bizarre noise.

"Jade! Don't break it!" he scolded not looking up from the object he was working on.

"Alright."

She looked around.

"There we go!" Pey'J sat back in the chair that creaked and croaked dangerously.

"What is it?"

She eyed the brown-red object, interested. It was round-ish with a circle on the surface.

The half-pig handed it to her.

Jade took it and poked the surface.

"What is it?" she repeated.

"It's a Synthetic-Atomic-Compressor. Or SAC."

"What does it do? Where did you get it?" she asked.

"I err…made it! It's a store hold for all of your items."

Pey'j took her camera from the desk and placed it right above the circle.

In a flash of soft white light, each atom that formed the camera separated and entered the SAC.

Jade almost dropped the SAC in horror.

"What did it do! My camera!"

"Relax. See this button? Press it."

"Ok…" Jade muttered uncertainly, fiddling with the SAC (which was to her amazement, weightless even after having eaten her priceless camera) and pressed the button.

The camera was reconstructed before her eyes and Pey'j caught it before it fell down.

Jade grabbed the camera back and checked it through, suspicious for any glitches or errors. She could find nothing wrong.

"Is it for me?" she asked Pey'j, nudging the SAC.

"Yup." He said, smiling. "It's to help you carry around that blastedly heavy camera."

Jade grinned and put the camera back into the SAC once more.

"Thanks Uncle Pey'j!"

She attached the SAC to her side and jumped and twirled in a circle.

Pey'j almost sighed.

"Anyways. Did'ja eat yet?"

"Yup. I ate the K-Bups!"

"All of it!"

Jade smiled and nodded. Pey'j sighed.

"There goes lunch."

Jade's smile grew.

"What am I gonna do with you?" Pey'j said teasingly, ruffling her hair. Jade pretended to be miffed.

Pey'j walked out of the workshop and Jade followed faithfully, wondering what he was going to do next.

"I need ter' go into town for the day, Jade. Wanna come?"

"Ok!" Jade replied immediately. "We might be able to see those new Alpha-section guys."

Pey'j rolled his eyes and was about to say more, but he stopped. He went down the ramp unto the dock and entered the hovercraft, fixing up the machinery inside a little bit.

Jade went to the edge of the water and stuck her hand inside the cool liquid, making little ripples as she flicked her hand back and forward quickly.

The fish inside the shadowed water darted away far from her hand and the dock, and even farther when Pey'j got the hovercraft's motor running, causing the hovercraft and dock to vibrate.

"COM'ON JADE!" her uncle yelled over the deafening racket. Jade hoped inside the hovercraft and positioned herself against the wall, sitting on one of the side seats as the door closed. There was a lot of smoke inside and the hovercraft smelled slightly of smoked ham. Jade wrinkled her nose.

She didn't like that smell one bit.

She made it a point not to eat ham or beef. She sometimes had chicken, but kept her 'meaty' needs satisfied with fish. Smoked ryukoi was delish!

Pey'j drove the hovercraft out the Hangar and into the bay. Pulling down the accelerator, Jade grabbed the edge of her seat as the hovercraft sped across the water. Pey'j yelled something, but Jade couldn't catch what he said as they hit a rather large wave.

They entered the large gateway into the city, and made their way over to the entrance to the Pedestrian District and out of the Main Canal. Docking the hovercraft in the parking, they got out, Jade silently following Pey'j as he made his way over to the news distributor.

Jade looked at some other kids hanging around next to the giant Television screen. They were all older than her, and one of the black-haired boys noticed her, and raised an eyebrow. He had long bangs that fell in front of his face, and his clothes were black: he was wearing a black hoodie and a pair of baggy pants.

She couldn't decipher his age, but he was the younger one of the four. The others soon followed his gaze and looked at the nine year old and snickered and laughed.

Jade frowned.

But the lighting was perfect…

She looked around, Pey'j was still talking with the half-bird, half human working at the news stand, and took out the camera from her SAC. Holding it up to her face, she paused, reflecting and hesitating, but decided to take the photo anyways. Zooming up on the boy, she looked at him and gazed at his face, waiting for the perfect position…

Click!

The boy shot a look at her and looked puzzled.

Jade gulped and put her camera back in the SAC. Pey'j asked her to come along, and they walked over to the far end of the place and went down a flight of stairs into Fountain Plaza.

They both walked over to Ming-Tsu's. Pey'j asked her to wait patiently outside so she could be spared of some 'borin' blitherin' business'. Jade nodded and he entered the shop.

She sighed and pulled out the camera again, checking the screen for the picture. Jade looked at it for a while then smiled.

'It's a perfect picture.'

She nodded fervently, forgetting a moment where she was.

She sighed and looked up, wondering why Pey'j was taking so long.

She looked sideways, making sure no one was there. The sun was high in the center of the sky, and it was sometime around early afternoon, the moment right after lunch when the sun is the hottest. Most people would be either inside sleeping or out by the water swimming.

She sighed.

'As usual the best in her domain, action reporter Jade has once again been called upon to investigate the top-secret affairs being conducted by the renown Pey'j…' Jade fantasized as she entered the shop as stealthy as a nine-year old could.

She crouched down and hid behind a box. Then she peeked over the top and noticed that the room was empty. She jumped over the box and did a forward tumble, arriving just in front of an aquarium…just barely knocking it over…

Gulping as she realized how lucky she was, she walked on tiptoes to an open door at the back. She could hear some voices…she recognized Pey'j's voice and a heavy voice that she supposed was Ming-Tsu's…

Exactly what they were saying, she couldn't tell.

Just a bit closer…

The floor beneath her creaked.

Jade blinked. Then gulped.

Then tried to retreat…lightly…lightly…

Creeeeeaaaak.

Jade sighed as silently as she could as one thought crossed her mind: busted!

"What the hell are you doing?" a voice asked behind her.

Jade jumped up and forgetting all of her 'spying-ness' as she ran towards the exit. Pey'j and Ming-Tsu's voices had died down and they were no doubt listening to what was going on.

Jade realized who had spoken to her, and he was the same boy she had taken a picture of in front of the news stand.

"Hey you! I recognise you! You're the girl with the camera!" Jade glared, "What are you doing?" he said, joining her at the door.

Jade looked really out of placed and kept on moving her hands around nervously, pulling her long hair behind her ears.

"Relax would you?" he looked at her weirdly.

Jade noticed Ming-Tsu walk out and come over.

"Did she take anything?"

"I don't know."

Jade piped up, now a bit scared.

"I'm sorry! I didn't do anything I swear! I was looking for uncle Pey'j!"

"Oh. You are Jade then?"

Jade swallowed, eyes wide as she nodded as fast as humanly possible.

"You're the pig's niece?"

Jade looked furiously at the boy.

"Pey'j is not a 'pig'!" she huffed.

"You need your eyes checked." The boy rolled his eyes.

"Jade? What in tarnation is goin' on here?"

"It is alright, friend." Ming-Tsu said. "Jade was looking for you."

"I told you to wait outside!"

"Yeah but I waited like an hour!"

"Com'on! It was maybe twenty minutes."

Jade just glared.

"Com'on kid." The pig rolled his eyes, "I need to stop at the Akuda Bar. Man I got thirsty all of a sudden."

Jade crossed her arms.

Putting on her best 'Jade-is-not-happy' look, she followed Pey'j as they left the shop, Pey'j said goodbye to Ming-Tsu and Jade stayed threateningly silent at the boy's questioning glance. They walked across Fountain Square and made their way up to the Akuda Bar.

Pey'j looked at Jade after a moment.

"What happened back there Jade?"

"I went in looking for you. And this boy comes in and thinks I'm trying to steal something!"

"You weren't spyin' on me?"

"No!" Jade said quickly, feigning disbelief and indignance.

"Alright Jade." Pey'j said sighing as they entered the bar, "Man I'm thirsty."

Mo looked at them entering and smiled, lowering his shaded glasses as they entered.

"Hey Pey'j!"

The other usual people also acknowledged Pey'j's presence, but Pey'j simply sat at the bar and asked for a beer. Mo asked about the lighthouse and how it had fared in yesterday's attack, and Jade was drawn out of her little world and jumped up and a stool and listened intently to the conversation.

"The DomZ are planning more attacks on Hillys according to the Alpha Sections." Mo said as he wiped the bar before putting a tall beer glass in front of Pey'j.

"I don't trust them Alpha-whatsit. They're way too convenient."

"Well, I think that we're pretty damn lucky. They are installing shields and selling them to those who live in remote areas."

Jade smiled. "Pey'j! We should get one!"

"Jade, I know we should, but we don't have the credits!"

Why wasn't she a famous rich reporter already?

Jade sat down.

"Uncle, can I have some Juice?"

"Yeah. Mo, one Juice fer the little lady."

"One Juice for the little lady coming up!"

Jade blushed slightly at the title Pey'j had given her.

Mo gave her a glass of Juice and she drank it down. It tasted good.

"Well…I don't know. I say we accept them fer now but stand on our guards and not become too dependent."

"We're not all pessimists like you Pey'j. The Alpha's are from a planet that was overcome by the DomZ. They escaped and are giving their help to other planets who need help."

Jade looked at her uncle's frown but he didn't answer anything. Instead he chugged down his drink as fast as possible.

There was a silence as the bar's customary music started playing.

The traveler with the pearl entered the bar at that moment and Pey'j got off the chair and rushed to challenge the traveler to an other round of Jeopardy.

Jade sipped her juice.

Mo took Pey'j's empty glass and put it in the sink, washing it clean.

Jade finished her Juice and went over to the table where Pey'j and the traveler were playing Jeopardy, and tried to learn how to play by looking at them, unconscious that at that very moment, the future of her planet was hanging by a few weak, thin threads.