First, you should know I wrote and posted this before, but had to take it off to edit it. Trust me, the edited version is better. Any comments/criticisms are welcome. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: Trigun ain't mine. As for the other characters…I might use them in other Trigun stories, so yeah.

Chapter 1.

I still remember the day he put the hole in the fifth moon. Not very many people saw him, but I did. Someone was with him; I don't know who. The fifth moon isn't very bright now, and you can tell exactly where the hole is. You can see it at night.

Funny, that day I was complaining that everything was boring and nothing fun ever happened in our town. I was so close to the blast I saw some of my hair fly off because it was singed! Jingle said it made my hair style better. I took it as a sad excuse for him trying to be polite.

It's been three months since the man came to town. My mom still complains of headaches from the loud blast. My dad, who is a scientist, went out to look for moon rocks that may have fallen down. He left a few days after the occurrence and hasn't been back since. I thought about going to look for him, but there's no chance of that, I know.

There are many myths about him; many legends and theories. I hear them from everyone. Rumors have it there's a 60,000,000,000 double dollar reward on his head! My dad said he wishes we could catch him to earn the reward. He wants to move from our city to a nicer area. He didn't seem like the bad guy type to me. Something about his eyes….

"Neece, what are you waiting for? You haven't finished the dishes. Are you daydreaming again?" My older sister, Maya, calls for me. She tries to act like she can take care of me by herself, but I can tell she doesn't want to most of the time. Let me put it this way, my family is against girls doing anything but dishes and laundry. I'm being a bit sarcastic.

"Oh, no, the water's cold." I mumbled. An hour has been wasted yet again. I can't help but keep thinking about the explosion and how my dad has been gone for so long. Too many horrible people are out there who don't care about anything save themselves.

"Hi, done yet?" Jingle popped his head into the kitchen window.

It startled me. "How long have you been there? I didn't even see you."

He laughed. "You never see me. If I was the Humanoid Typhoon, I would have blown you away." He aimed his fingers at me like a gun and pretended to shoot.

"What are you talking about? Is that a new bandit or something? I haven't heard any—"

He shook his head. "No, silly! Don't you remember? He blew a hole in the moon. Everyone is talking about him this week. I hear he's in town. He wears red all the time. It stands for everyone he's killed…blood red." He grinned wickedly. Jingle loves to tell stories, true or not, sometimes you can't tell the difference.

"Is that his name?" I asked as I filled the sink up with more warm water. "Hm, the Humanoid Typhoon…. That sounds really—did you say he's in town?"

He paused and looked at me. "That depends…are you ready to go?"

"What do you mean? I can't go anywhere until I finish my chores. It's always the same. Of course, the last time I said that, he came here." I washed and rinsed as I spoke. I finished in five minutes, but I did a horrible job!

I grabbed my shoes by the front door and ran out as fast as I could. "Where shall we look first?" I asked.

"I thought you'd never finish! Did you get a haircut?"

I rolled my eyes. "That's the twentieth time you've asked that in three months. It got old the second time!" He was making fun of my hair again. My mom assured me it would grow back; it hasn't yet.

We ran around for a couple of hours. No one had heard or seen anything. Pretty soon, we forgot about our search and played in the well. Not many girls play there, only one of my friends does, because it is the dirtiest place to go. Men are digging for water, but they haven't found any yet. Our water supply is limited, but I don't know how we manage.

"I need a shower! If Mom sees me, I'll never hear the end of it." I said after we were done.

We took the quickest route home going through some back roads. The sun had almost completely disappeared and the moons began to show. The fifth one stuck out above the rest, or maybe it was my imagination.

"Dr. Ernest won't say a word. I don't know how to get him to talk! I mention any weak points and he acts like he doesn't care. I haven't let him see daylight for two months and he won't crack."

I stopped mid-run and watched Jingle and the others go on ahead of me. I heard a man mention my father's name and I wondered what they were talking about. Shawna came back. "Why'd you—?"

I shushed her before she said another word. I ducked down and crawled on my hands and knees over to where the guy was talking. I looked through the window, but no one was there. I turned the corner and saw three tall guys talking amongst themselves.

One had a dark mask on. He stood against the wall not saying a word. Another of them looked very anxious. He kept looking over his shoulder as if someone was listening. Someone was listening, but not behind him. The other acted nonchalant.

The normal-looking guy said, "Don't worry about it! Everyone's got a weak spot, you just have to probe harder, or use a different method. He won't go for torture or loss of belongings, so there has to be something else we haven't done yet."

My eyes bugged out. What did he mean? I wondered if they knew where my dad was.

"What? What then? I'm out of ideas and time and the boss is depending on me!" The nervous man panicked. He kept wringing his hands.

"Calm down, Corrin, I have an idea that will get us both out of this mess."

"Did he find something?" The masked man spoke up.

"He won't say. Don't worry, nobody can stop us. Everyone's tried and failed, disappearing off the planet. Once we are done with this doctor, stolen his work, and capture the double dollar man, we'll be the richest people in the solar system. Not to mention the most powerful!"

What did that mean? They were planning to steal my dad's work and get rid of him so we'd never see him again? Why? I stood up and bumped my head. Shawna gasped next to me. They heard us.