Techno Feast

5

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A/n O.k. A Very belated, yet equally grateful, thanks to Picon. See, I've had these chapters written for a while, just never bothered to upload them. Anyway, this didn't have as much of Lorraine and D.J. as I wanted, but it's still pretty cool, and I promise you I didn't lie about the genres. SEE! It's getting less angsty and more actiony! Kelly a.k.a Loofer

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Jet was surprised. Faye had actually done what he said. He opened his mouth as if to make a remark about this, but thought better of it, recalling her mood and how they've been blowing such small things out of scale lately.

He hopped down the steps, unwrapping the roll of gauze. Faye watched him, not altogether trusting, as he sat down. He leaned forward to look at the cut, which had nearly stopped bleeding, but hadn't really clotted yet.

"Man Faye, how hard did you kick it?" Faye groaned, her head lolling back a bit. "I don't know, should I have gauged it?"

"No." He said, putting the bandages next to her foot.

He did it without thinking, which didn't happen often; mainly when under extreme duress. As far as Jet knew he wasn't now, but he still was surprised by his own actions as he reached out with his left hand, meaning to grab her foot. He paused. He should've asked her. Hell, he should have at least warned her he was going to. His facial features compressed in a flinch, taking his time before looking up at her face.

As soon as the hand touched her skin, Faye retracted a bit, a gasp escaping her lips. She stared at the appendage a moment before coming to her senses and meeting Jet's eyes. He looked regretful, even apologetic. She wondered why for a moment, and then became aware of the look on her face. She hurried to explain.

"I-It was cold. It startled me, that's all," She said.

Jet knew that it was meant to make him feel better, but it really didn't. Jet hadn't thought about his arm in a while, and it made him uncomfortable to do so. He pushed it away into the back of his mind like he always did. He could always come back to it again when he wasn't healing wounds.

He paused, this time moving slower, picking her foot up off the table. It had to be his left hand, he couldn't avoid it. He needed his right hand to apply the bandages. In the moment of silence that followed, Jet felt a very odd presence. He all of a sudden had the sense he could feel Faye's mood change. Maybe it was from spending too much time with her. Maybe he was finally going insane. Who knew? Either way, he could tell, as the quiet filled the air around them, probing the air in their lungs like a toddler tests the pool water, that she was lost in memories. Knowing her, he could guess which memories.

"…Do you miss him, Faye?" He asked, snapping Faye out of her daydreaming. He wore that serious expression with that gaze that pierces your mind, leaving you stammering as you try to recuperate.

"Well, Who? I- No! Of course not! The little bastard brought in on himself, you know."

Jet looked back down at his hands, observing them as if they weren't part of his body; the way someone might watch television. There was a pause, broken by his voice. Faye had really never paid attention to it before. His voice anyway. When he spoke softly, it did something. His voice had, oh what were those things called…subtleties! She never really noticed them when he barked things at her. This was a different Jet. It must have been the Jet that he saw. Certainly Jet had spoken like this before, otherwise he'd be stumbling through his speech, or forcing the words out in an unnatural manner…

"Hey Faye…"

She paused. "…What?"

"We're all that's left," He said, his tone a bit sad. He was right Ed had left. So had Spike. Hell, even the –dog- left. And as loud as they could get sometimes, They couldn't fill up the vast emptiness that Jet had donned 'The Bebop' so many years ago.

Faye sighed, staring straight ahead. "Yep…

Jet sighed, finishing up the job and slapping his hand on the table. "Yelp," He said loudly. "Just have to do our beast he said, and walking off, hands on hips, eyebrows raised in a forcibly unconcerned face.

Faye watched him leave, truly wondering if it was Jet that just said that.

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"Ow! Christ, D.J!"

Lorraine rubbed her watering eye, temporarily removing her sunglasses. D.J. looked whimpery in front of her. "Jeez, sorry, Jane. It's really cramped up here."

"Well no duh it's a heating vent!" The girl whispered, the sex tape still playing down in the restroom. She finished with her eye. It still hurt, but at least she could see again.

"Alright which way?" She asked. D.J.'s watch lit up the 'ceiling' above him, with green lines and moving dots. The whole shebang. "…east"

She looked at him in her special way that said 'don't be stupid dumbass.'

"Which iiiiiiis?"

D.J. sighed. "That way." He pointed a finger over her shoulder. "Turn around."

It continued that way a while, D.J. pointing which way when they came to a fork in the duct, and Lorraine getting basically pissed off at anything breathing and non-breathing.

Finally they came to a grate in the 'floor', Lorraine held a hand up for present company to stop, flipping on her back and plugging something that looked like an egg timer into the 'ceiling' above her.

Sweat dripped down D.J.'s face, soaking his black shirt, and making the eye make-up run. He turned down to his wristwatch, pressing a few buttons on it, and even more with the sensory glove on the other hand. Of course to the observer not familiar with technology it would look like he was gesticulating meaninglessly.

"On mark…" He said, breathing heavily. Lorraine was in the same state, though her paler skin and the green glow from the watch made her stand out all the more.

"Steady…" Lorraine slowly turned the timer to a small picture of a skull.

"Set…" She lifted her shirt a bit, pressing a few buttons on her belt. LED lights flashed on the inside of her glasses, flashing numbers, statistics, and readings. She then secured a cable to a special glove, and holding it out to D.J. As soon as he took it, she reached down, putting her hand on a keypad stuck to the wall. Hooks shot out of the soles on her 'Vintage 2010' Chuck Taylor's, securing the mettle grate to her foot.

While Lorraine was doing this, D.J. Hooked the cable to his belt loop, pulling up a sleeve to reveal an adhesive sensor pad on his arm. He typed away madly, watching the 'egg timer' as it flashed with yellow and blue lights. "all go." He muttered under his breath.

"Stay…" The hacker said, a luck term for thieves. Lorraine clasped hands with him, and he leaned down, stealing a kiss spider-man style, before bracing his legs.

"Mark!"

The device glued to the metal plate above spewed steam and emitted a soft hissing noise. All was silent and still for one terrifying moment, then The vent started to shutter. The two figures held on to each other's hand in a death grip, everymuscle in their body tense in anticipation of the shock.

The affect is hard to describe. Supersonic waves, mixed with blasts of cold and hot, sonicpulse, micropulse, any pulse you could name off of the top of your head. The coup de grace, the little devilish implement above dealt out strategically placed magnetic pulls.

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It went on for twenty minutes, in which time, both their fingernails had dug into each others skin, causing blood to surface. Then it was over. From the knee down, Lorraine's foot dangled out of the new escape route, the weight of the grate making it swing slightly. The screws were somewhere on the ground ten feet below.

D.J. sighed in relief, shoulder's sagging into their natural sloping shape. "All clear," He said softly, like an actor after a good performance. "Alarms down. Situation secure. Code Green. Whatever the hell else can I say, Am I cliché enough yet?"

Lorraine laughed, loosing the metal scrap from her shoe. It clattered below. No problem; the room was soundproof.

"How long 'til they know they're being screwed with?" She asked as she started to slip out to the room below, one hand on the hem of her shirt to keep it from riding up.

"About twenty minutes." He replied, holding on to her wrist tight.

"Great. I might get to have some fun if I'm lucky." She pulled on the skin mask. "See you soon babe."

One more kiss later, and she was gone.

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"Dammit, Faye, my ship's not a storage closet!"

Faye looked in at the boxes lining the passenger seat of the Hammerhead. A shrug was given in reply to Jet. "They're not getting in your way, And I don't want to bring them in yet."

Jet groaned, mumbling under his breath. "Lazy, insensitive little bi-"

She looked at him over her shoulder. "They're a surprise."

He blinked, shoulders tensing a bit and arms unfolding. "What?"

"I thought it would be the least place you'd look." Faye said playfully, one hand on her hip, the other wagging. Jet raised an eyebrow.

"What are you trying to pull?" He asked suspiciously.

Faye backed away from the cockpit and patting him on the back as she walked by. "No peeking Jet." She said as she walked out the door.

Jet was first befuddled, then confused, then decided to screw it and just go.

To his credit, he never looked in the boxes.

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Faye sat on a couch, feeling rather stupid with just one stocking on. The other wouldn't fit on her gauze covered foot. She sighed, hefting the Computer onto her lap. She sat and stared at it blankly. She was trying to surf, but it wasn't working. The search engine merely stared back at her, daring her to enter something in and see the many boring results it came up with. Fine.

She typed slowly, stolidly, one finger only, keystroke after key stroke. After a few minutes she had typed in 'How to get a million dollars or more with very little effort and a lot of looks, preferably something with guns or gambling. I'm real good at gambling'

The computer replied such : 'no results were found. Try limiting your inquiry to less words.'

"Oh yea? Well why the fuck do they call you googolplex?" She asked angrily, shoving the computer onto the couch cushion next to her.

It took five minutes to lure her back to the LED screen. First she started searching Faye valentine. Way too many hits. She tried advanced search, typing 'big, shot, bounty, hunter, con" under the 'not containing' part. Just a bunch of crap and census records. Well shit.

She paused a minute, then typed in 'Spike Speigel', then backspaced quickly. She didn't want to know about his shit. She pondered for a bit more, then typed 'Jet Black' in. Woah. Lots of sunglasses ads. After she narrowed down the search a bit she finally was able to get to the police file. She grinned mischievously.

Thanks to Ed's leftover hacking programs, she was able to decode the stuff in a snap.

"Hmm, so he was an officer at the age of twenty two eh?... What! He's thirty six!" The dialogue to herself went like this for a good portion of the hour, as she searched members of his family. She didn't even want to know this stuff about Jet, but it was fun looking it up.

All those names. Pao Pu, Bob Hannessee, Carmine Stewart, Sidney moran, Marvolo Black, Vanessa Black, Katrina Komissarai, Stevin Black, Selena Jones, Amber Coleman, Andrew Black, Dominic Black, Francis Gadfly, Lorraine Black, Samuel Miller, Tony Franklyn, Joseph Carter, on and on and on! The list went on! Faye had to stop. Information overload had given her a headache.

As she fished around for aspirin in the bathroom cabinet, The ringing sound of an incoming call came in. Popping the pills, she rushed out and dived on the couch, reaching it at the last second.

"Jet!" A guy yelled. At sight of Faye he faltered, eyes falling down past her chin, then hurriedly back up, blushing.

"He's not here."

"I can see that."

Faye scowled. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Why are you calling?"

"Where's Jet?"

Feye groaned. "Ugh. He's out."

"Well I need to talk to him, can I lea-"

"I'm his PARNTER!"

"…oh…"