The church was on the outskirts of Tharsis City, about 12 kliks away from the nearest building. It was a dump. There seemed to have been a large shootout there in the recent past. At the most, a year ago. The roof was heavily damaged from an explosion, at least, the rubble scattered around the building suggested it.
Faye shivered as the three approached the church. Even Spike seemed a little uneasy.
"Never thought I'd be here again." Spike mumbled.
"Never wanted to be here again." Faye muttered.
Jet's voice buzzed in Johnny's ear.
"Spike, Faye, you two circle around back. Johnny, you go in through the front when Spike breaches the place."
"Will do, pardner." Johnny replied. Spike and Faye got into position without speaking.
There was no sentry at the front door. Good sign.
"Johnny, I'm about to breach. On 3."
"Gotcha."
"1."
Johnny chambered a round in his 5906.
"2."
He flipped the safety off and placed a breaching charge on the door.
"3!"
There was an explosion on the other side of the church, followed by gunfire.
Johnny detonated his own charge and spun into the church.
Two men swung machine pistols to bear, ready for him. Lucky for Johnny, he was quicker than them, and a better shot. He failure drilled the both of them.
Rifle fire broke out from above the altar, hitting the floor in front of Johnny's feet.
Johnny dove behind a pew, picking up one of the machine pistols. A Steyr TMP. A nice little gun, expensive, too. It had 23 rounds left in the mag.
"Man-man on your right, Jon-Jon!" Ed's voice crackled in his ear.
Johnny spun, bringing the TMP up firing. No time for aiming. He brought it up just in time to riddle a thug with bullets as he took aim with his rifle, an H&K G3, it looked like. His TMP clicked empty.
He slung it over his shoulder with the handy sling it had, and scooped up the rifle, sliding his 5906 into its holster.
A grenade landed to Johnny's right. He kicked it, hard, and jumped back. It exploded just as he got out of the casualty radius.
He shouldered the rifle before he got up, and took seven aimed shots, taking out seven guys in the rafters.
As he got up, a bullet tagged him in the top of the left shoulder. No matter. He dropped the G3, and took cover behind another pew.
"Johnny! He ran to the room behind the altar! I'm going in!" Spike yelled.
As Spike opened the door, an explosion rang out. The door was rigged to a flashbang. Spike tried to readjust his eyes, but took two shots to the shoulder, spinning him to the floor.
As Faye took out the last two guys with shots to the neck, the bounty walked out of the room, his gun trained on Spike.
"Drop your weapons or he dies!"
Neither Faye nor Johnny even lowered their guns.
"I MEAN IT!"
Suddenly, his head snapped back, its contents splashing on the wall behind him.
Faye and Johnny ran for cover.
A shot rang out. Far away, at least a mile for that kind of delay.
"Great..." Spike groaned, grasping his shoulder.
"I'm betting it was a Syndicate sniper." Johnny said. He sighed. "All that work for nothing. Dammit! How much do you want to bet that the Syndicate put that bounty on him themselves, so they didn't have to risk losing any men assaulting the church?"
Faye groaned.
"You think he's gone?" she asked.
"Long gone. He doesn't care about us. He was aiming for our man here. Spike, can you pass me a 'Boro?"
"Get one yourself, I've been shot!" he spat.
"You've still got one arm that hasn't been shot, ya pansy! I'll pay you back, you know I'm good for it!"
Spike tossed the pack of cigarettes to Johnny, who lit one up.
"You want one, Faye?" he asked.
"Don't be pimping out MY cigs, Johnny."
"Don't be selfish, Spike. Easy come, easy go, buddy."
"Yeah, I'll have one." Faye said. Johnny tossed her one.
"Spike, can you fly back?" Jet asked from the Bebop.
"No, but not because his arm's shot, he's just lazy." Johnny laughed.
"Shut up, Johnny. I can just put it on auto, Jet."