Cowboy Bebop 2, Session Two: No One To Trust - By Greg "sgoast" Reynolds |------------------------------------------------| | Disclaimer: | | I have absolutely no connection to Bandai or | | any of the people that make "Cowboy Bebop" | | therefore I would be quite pleased if I wasn't | | sued. Yes, that'd be nice. "Cowboy" and all of | | its characters are trademarked and so don't go | | talking smack about 'em or else! Hehe ^_^ | |------------------------------------------------| "Son of a..." Neko had been banned from the back part of the ship since he had come aboard. Before, when he was on earth, he could eat, sleep, or do anything wherever he wanted to. Now with a ship with a two-woman crew and a tag along, Neko had found himself sleeping on the couch on a regular basis. "Faye! Are you done in the bathroom?" "Be patient!" Faye responded. He sighed. It had been 2 days and not a single bounty had been collected. Sure, Faye was supporting him but he wasn't used to not earning his own keep. "Hey Ed! Where's our next stop anyway?" "Ed thinks its Reyfon. Ed forgot." Ed was still her normal self. Age hadn't changed her a bit. She was now turning into quite a young woman. She had grown taller and had matured also, yet she was still as playful and youthful as she was in the days of Jet and Spike. Her hacker side was sharp as a tack as she positioned the ship towards Reyfon. "Ed loves Jet-job! Ed wishes she could have done this before!" "Jet-what? AGH!" A loud bang sent a tremor through the ship. Faye came stumbling through the hall wearing a towel and masque. "What the hell was that!?!" Faye screamed. "Something hit ship!" Ed replied. Neko and Faye-ran to the bridge and looked out. Flailing in front of the ship were a pack of raggedy made cruisers swerving back and forth. "Quick," Neko exclaimed, "Find their frequency!" "Right!" Ed fiddled with the knobs until he came upon the sound of 4 people screaming at each other. "Shit! Chen just blew up!" "Goddamned controls!" "Goddamned ship! Where the hell did it come from!?!" "Well, whoever got that ship will have his bounty when the cops arrive" Neko face immediately lit up when he heard that, but when they all started laughing, Neko came down from cloud nine. "Yeah! He had such a bounty! Haha!" "This is sick." Faye said. "They're laughing because one of their partners died. Don't these freaks value anything?" "This from the woman that trades lives for money?" Neko said with a sly smile. "One more comment like that, wiseass, and I'll..." Ed jumped between the two. "Faye-faye! Neko-ne! Stop! We need to figure out this mess! Ed thinks we should capture the rest and get the bounty! ED IS HUNGRY!" The two adults reeled back and mumbled in agreement. "Alright! Here we go!" She then smashed a glass case with a button inside and, with a beep, the ship accelerated to its top speed. "YEEEEHAW! ED'S GONNA DO THIS MORE OFTEN!" Neko and Faye were plastered on the back wall of the bridge. "Well, so... what the hell, something's behind us!" One of the pilots cursed. "Crap! It's that homicidal ship again!" The four of them raced with Ed and the rest of the crew on their tail until a siren made the bebop crew screech to a halt. "The bounty may be small," said the tall green-haired policewoman. "But it's enough to repair the ship. I'm sorry if I stopped you mid-pursuit, but you're lucky you didn't stop those guys when you did. They're pretty dangerous." "I didn't know that running with your tail between your legs qualifies you as 'dangerous' these days." Neko scoffed. "Laugh all you want, but they have been responsible for destroying 57 ships in this area alone. Now add that with their wanted status in twelve other systems..." Faye jumped up and grabbed the policewoman. "WELL WHY THE HELL DID WE GET SO LITTLE ON THAT SCUMBALL'S HEAD!" "He was new." "...Crap..." "New?" Neko inquired. "What do you mean 'new'" "They aren't just any random gunmen, you know. They are the Kawai-kan. Intergalactic terrorists. Truth is that if it wasn't for your little collision, they would have struck the shuttle with the president of Reyfon on it." Ed looked confused. "Faye-Faye, that was where we were just headed." "Yeah! You're right! That qualifies us for a medal of honor, right?" Faye burst out in anticipation. "Not a cent." Faye fell over. "Unless you pick up the entire troop, you don't even get a thank you." "Oh this is such bull..." Faye muttered to herself "Reyfon are very proud people Faye-Faye." Ed said as she opened up Tomato and began typing away. "Ed sees that the only person Reyfons give anything to is the person who brings in the top five criminals on Reyfon" The cop interrupted Ed. "Yeah, like I said. You'd have to catch them all to get the special reward." "Well," Neko said getting up and walking to the bridge. "We'd better get going if we're ever gonna find them." "Its already too late. We lost track of them an hour ago." Faye said with a discouraged tone of voice. The cop looked towards her and took out a piece of torn paper out of her pack. "I can help." It had been an hour while the four of them scanned through plans found in the wreckage. "Turns out that this was going to be a two part attack. You messed up the first part but they still have the landing to sabotage." "Why are you helping us anyway." Neko asked. "We haven't even caught your name yet." "The police are better at covering things up then preventing them. I just don't want it to happen in the first place, and the name's Hakibi." Neko stared at her. "Are you implying this could be a coup?" "Anything can happen, that's all I'm going to say." They stayed quiet from that point on to when the ship had been positioned where the attack was planned. "You know the odds are against us, right?" Faye said, breaking the silence. "There are four of them, we only have three cruisers we can go out with. Not to mention that the police might be in on this too." Just that moment, a loud noise echoed through the ship as a large gun-cannon protruded out of the ship. "Ed is ready!" "That sort of equals the odds, doesn't it Faye?" It was a solemn ride for president Ukio. His planet was in economic and social turmoil, he had no one to trust but himself and his dog, and now he was afraid that someone had plot him for a fall. "Are you enjoying your peanuts Mr. President?" "Oh, yeah... Uh...They're good." He leaned back and begun to talk to his security minister. "Are you sure there are enough guards at the landing?" "Absolutely Mr. President. Remember that you are the most important person on Reyfon and you do have a 96% approval rating." "Same with Kennedy." "Huh? Kennedy?" "It was on Earth...About 120 years ago... Check the archives sometime. Then you'll know what troubles me." "Well, those earthlings were savages back then. Weren't they still primates?" "No more than we are..." Hakibi had just gotten into the cruiser by the time Kawai-kan came into sight. "Shit!" Faye exclaimed. "They're way too early!" Hakibi stared over at her. "You know, you guys kinda changed their plans." "OH NOW YOU'RE BLAMING THIS ON US!" She yelled. "Faye! Hakibi! Wake up and get out there!" Neko barked as he blasted off from the ship "Right." Hakibi said following after. Faye just growled and continued along with them. They flew towards the area of the original attack and began to plan. "According to their plans, the were going to hit just before entering the stratosphere. That would be a physical impossibility now, so they must be going to attack while they land." "That's insane!" Faye exclaimed. "They'd kill themselves in the process!" "So?" Neko replied. "Don't you get it Faye? It's not about life, it's about honor. If they just wanted the thrill of the kill they could have just been bounty hunters like us." He lowered his head. "What they want can't be bought. They want immortality... and if they kill the president, the press will give it to them in spades." The time for talk was over now. The shuttle had just entered the stratosphere and the Kawai-kan, Beboppers, and the police were in striking positions. Who was going to shoot first? They were in a stalemate as the president sat in his seat. What was going through his mind was insurmountable. Family, his planet, religion, and life itself. He knew he was going to die, just how? And by who? Two packs of strangers had positioned themselves against his security and all seemed ready to fire. Just then, one of the police ships began to gradually turn and fly besides the shuttle. "Oh, Good. An escort." Ukio thought... until the same ship fired upon him. The entire crew of the shuttle began screaming as all the police ships gradually turned around and began targeting the shuttle. "Dammit! I knew it!" Hakibi screamed at the top of her lungs. Before she could act though, the Kawai-Kan zoomed past the beboppers and began shooting. "No!" Faye yelled. "There's no chance we can save him now!" But her cries were drowned out by a strange phenomenon. They began shooting down the renegade police. "Ed still is confused." All four of them floated there, dumb struck by what was happening. Faye quickly broke the pause. "YOU MEAN THEY'RE ON OUR SIDE!" Hakibi looked over with a sly smile on her face. "Why live in infamy, when you can be heroes?" Reyfon was a joyful place that day as the four greatest heroes Reyfon had ever seen landed aside the presidential shuttle. Moments later, Faye and the rest landed too. Later that night, The Kawai-kan were pardoned of all of their previous felonies on Reyfon and announced that they were all going to shut down their operations. "Twas the sins of the father" was the excuse they used. But the Reyfons believed every word, lowering their bounty to... "Not a red cent." Faye said motioning a zero with her hand. "We almost caught the biggest bounty in this system and at the last minute they go all noble and crap..." "Just be glad they didn't charge you with treason back there." Habiki said. "Remember, they're heroes now." Ed looked over at her. "So what Habi do now?" Ed asked. "I don't know. I sure as hell can't go back to the force. They must have planned a backup plan..." "ED THINKS HABI SHOULD COME WITH US!" Faye jumped up in protest. "NOW LISTEN HERE!" "Ok." (See You Soon Space Cowboy)