Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction / Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Cowboy Bebop Meets Trigun ❯ Long Introductions ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: Not mine! (Grrrrr!)

A/N: Ok, after working my butt off all weekend editing it, I am proud to announce that I have completed Chapter 2! Everyone celebrate! It's a lot longer than the first so prepare yourself. Also, for those of you who have seen the anime, the timeline of this story begins right after the Escape From Pain episode of Trigun. (The timeline will be based on Trigun since I'm more familiar with it.) I'm going to try to remain as true to the plot as possible, but there will definitely be some changes made.

Chapter 2: Long Introductions

Planet Gunsmoke

Meryl Strife was walking through the house that she and her partner Millie Thompson had managed to rent for them and Vash. It was a simple place, but that was all they needed. She paused as she was walking by Vash's room. He had been his usual self for the past few days, but she wondered at the events that had taken place while they had been traveling with the caravan. She still didn't know what had caused Vash to act the way he did. He had seemed like an entirely different person. And yet…

She put her ear up against the door. She didn't hear anything. He was probably still asleep even though it was late morning, the lazy bum. She slammed the door open and marched in the room.

“Vash, wake up already!”

Vash turned over, mumbling something. Meryl, although somewhat irritated with his laziness, was curious about what he had said.

“Did you say something?”

Vash turned over again, facing her. His usually spiky blond hair was spread across his face. His usually cheerful face bore a look of great sadness, and Meryl wondered at it. He stirred, and Meryl stepped back.

“Rem…”

Rem? What does that mean, I wonder?

All of a sudden, Vash's blue-green eyes opened and stared into hers. Both were silent for a moment until…

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh! My room is being invaded!” Vash shouted.

“What do mean by that! What the hell are you talking about!” Meryl yelled back.

She was annoyed now. She marched out of the room, slamming the door as she went. She had wasted time in there. She still had to write the company report about Vash. How the hell did someone like him turn out to be Vash the Stampede? she thought, furiously.

Vash got up slowly. He had dreamed about Rem again. He still missed her after all this time. He had lived his whole life according to what she had taught him so long ago. Vash had never diverged from that, yet he couldn't feel proud of himself. He had caused much pain despite his best efforts to prevent it. And his past was still unresolved…

Stop it. Vash told himself. You've got to stop dwelling on this.

So, he got up and donned the red coat that was his trademark and, of course, his big silver handgun. He didn't feel like wearing his yellow-orange sunglasses so he simply put them in his coat. His hair was spiky once more, a constant reminder of his promise to Rem.

He stared into a mirror at himself, contemplating. Then, without a second thought, he left the room, his coat swishing softly.

Vash left the house on his own, preferring to avoid what would surely end up being a confrontation with Meryl. Of course, they usually ended with her hitting him on the head or something like that. He decided he would try to go for something to eat. His first choice would naturally be donuts. His face lit up with a grin of ecstasy at the mere thought of donuts. Ah! Those little cakes made from honey that had the most heavenly aroma. He was so absorbed in daydreaming about donuts that he didn't notice the 13-year-old red-haired girl that walked right in front of him. The two ran into each other.

“Ow!” The red-haired girl rubbed her head, sitting on the dusty earth. Vash, on the other hand, had ended up flat on his back, staring at the sky dazedly. The girl sat up.

“Why did you run into Ed?” She looked close to tears.

Vash snapped out of it instantly. “Uh, sorry,” he mumbled. He quickly stood up and went over to the girl. After a brief inspection, he concluded that she was fine. She only had a small bump on her head that was barely visible. He noticed how young she seemed and was struck by her pure, childlike innocence. He helped her to her feet slowly.

“I'm sorry about that,” Vash apologized again. “I was...distracted.” To his great surprise, the girl looked up and smiled happily at him, as if nothing had happened,

“It's ok. Ed is fine! Yes, Ed has never felt better!” she laughed.

“Well, that's good,” said Vash, puzzled by the girl's odd behavior. Was she referring to herself in the third person? “Anyway, since I'm the one who ran into you, how about if I make it up to you? What do you say to donuts?”

“Ed says yes!”

“Ok, great. By the way, what's your name?”

Suddenly, the girl stood up and put a hand across her chest and said, “Ed will introduce Ed. Full name: Edward Wong Hau Pepleu Tivursky the 4th.”

Well, thatcertainly is interesting, thought Vash. However he said out loud, “That's a long name.”

“Ed made up that name for Ed. Isn't it cool?”

If she made it up, how can she be the fourth? Vash wondered. “Uh, yeah. Listen, can I just call you Ed?”

“Ed is good,” she replied. “What is your name, new friend-person?”

“My name is Vash.”

“Ed is happy to meet you, Vash-person!”

Vash laughed. “It's nice to meet you, too. Now what do you say we go find us some donuts?”

“Yay!”

And with that, the two new friends went in search of donuts.

Spike was walking along the dusty road through town when he suddenly heard the name “Vash” spoken by one of the townspeople. He looked around until he found the source. It was a short black-haired woman in a white coat and skirt. She seemed very agitated about something and was addressing another woman taller than her with long brown hair, an innocent face, and a tan outfit.

“I can't believe this, Millie! Vash slipped out of our sight again!” raged the short-haired woman.

“Well, what should we do, Meryl?” asked Millie.

“I'll tell you what we're going to do! We're going to find him and drag his sorry butt back here right now!”

“Excuse me.”

Meryl and Millie turned to face Spike. While Meryl seemed to be irritated that her rant had been interrupted, Millie simply smiled at Spike and asked, “Yes? Is there something we can do for you, sir?”

“Please, call me Spike.” He smiled warmly. “I'm sorry, but I couldn't help over-hearing your conversation. Do you know about Vash the Stampede?”

Meryl glanced warningly at Millie, but Millie, oblivious, said cheerfully, “Why, yes we do! We travel with him because it's our job as Disaster Investigators. Since Vash is always getting into trouble, it's our assignment to curb the damages in the cases where he's involved.”

“Millie! What the hell do you think you're doing?” exclaimed Meryl. “You don't even know who this man is! What are you telling him about Vash for?”

Millie opened her mouth to protest, but Spike cut her off, saying, “Well that sounds like one hell of a job. Do you happen to know where he is?”

“No, I don't,” Merly declared. “Even if I did I wouldn't tell you!”

Spike smiled. She was feisty. “Well, in any case, I'll see you ladies later.” And with that, Spike walked away, pondering what he had just learned, leaving Meryl and Millie wondering just who that man had been.

“So tell me, what do you know about the guy?”

After poking his nose around the arid city, Jet had successfully found some underground channels of information. Of course, it would be more accurate to say that they had found him. They were irritated by his snooping so they thought they would be able to handle him. After showing them the error of such an assumption, Jet had went straight to the head honcho to ask him specifically about his bounty, namely, Vash the Stampede.

“I ain't telling you shit!” was his muffled reply. His face was being shoved into a table.

“You sure about that?” Jet smashed a bottle on the table. The man flinched as the shards clattered everywhere. Before he could react, the man was in a headlock. Jet took the nozzle of the bottle and held the jagged edges close to the man's neck. He gulped loudly.

“Hmmm, I wonder what it would feel like to have these razor sharp edges sink into your neck,” mused Jet. The man's eyes widened fearfully. “You know, it wouldn't even have to be quick and clean. It could be drawn out...painfully.”

“Ok, ok,” choked the man. “I'll talk! I'll talk!”

“Much obliged.” Jet's voice was low and smooth. “Now, first of all, I want to know...”

A few hours later, Jet left the man, contemplating what he has just learned. He had said, “Thank you very much for your cooperation,” right before he knocked him out. Jet sighed. It looked like they had their work cut out for them this time, especially after Jet had confirmed the rumor he had warned Spike about. This guy was going to be a tough one. He smiled wryly. Well, he thought, it won't be the first time.

Damn! Where the hell did that girl run off to now?

Faye was not in the least bit happy. Not only had she lost Ed (which actually wasn't such a bad thing), she had also lost a great deal of her money. She had been left in charge of watching Ed, who had insisted upon coming down with them to search for Vash the Stampede despite the fact that Ed was really only good at being the foremost computer hack in the galaxy, getting herself into trouble, and looking after the dog Ein. Faye, of course, had been stuck with the job of looking after her. She merely took her eyes off Ed for a few minutes (or at least enough time to lose a great deal of money betting on the ponies), and she had managed to disappear, dammit!

She had been searching for Ed for a long time now, and, despite her better judgment, Faye was beginning to worry about her. She was just about to give up hope of ever finding Ed when she heard an oh-so familiar voice shout:

“More donuts!” It was Ed.

Faye forced her way through the crowd until she reached a truly ridiculous spectacle. Ed was stuffing her face full of donuts as fast as she possibly could, but that wasn't what caught Faye's eye. It was the tall, blond-haired man in a red coat, who was shoveling food down just as fast (if faster) than Ed, who caught her eye. He looked truly ridiculous. Not only were his cheeks puffed out to the extreme limit because of all the donuts he was ingesting, but he had the most absurd grin on his face as he ate them. It looked like he gained the same kind of pleasure from eating donuts that other, more sane, people gained from betting and winning on the ponies.

Faye marched over to the two of them and demanded, “Ed! Where the hellhave you been? I've been looking for you for ages!”

Not the least bit upset about her meal being interrupted by a lecturing adult, Ed replied happily, “Ed has been with her new friend-person eating donuts!”

Upon hearing mention of himself, the blond man stopped eating and turned to look at Faye. He stared...and stared...and stared...until even Faye began to feel awkward. He had an even stranger look on his face now. What? Hasn't he seen a skin-tight outfit before? she thought irritably.

“Well, that's great Ed, but we really should head back to the Bebop. Spike and Jet will have learned something about our bounty by now. By the way,” she looked over toward the blond man, “who are you?”

All of a sudden, the man stood up abruptly, with what he seemed to think was a serious look on his face, and said, “I am known as Valentinez Alkalinella Xifax Sicidabohertz...”

Faye stared at him, completely nonplussed. She almost fell over when he continued.

“...Gombigobilla Blue Stradivari Talentrent Pierre Andri Charton-Haymoss Ivanovici Baldeus George Doitzel Kaiser the Third. Don't hesitate to call.”

What the hell! He couldn't possiblyhave been serious just then, could he!

Ed laughed. “You sure are funny, Faye-Faye. My new friend-person is just kidding!”

Well, that's a relief. Faye turned to Ed and said, “Come on Ed. We've got to get back to the Bebop.”

The man's eyes lit up at that. “Are you going to be traveling through the desert?”

“Yes!” Ed clapped her hands excitedly. “Ed will get to play with all the sand.”

“I wouldn't count on it, Ed. Come on. Let's go.” Faye beckoned to Ed.

Much to Faye's surprise (and annoyance) the blond man marched over to her, saying in an obnoxious parody of a deep, manly voice, “Young lady, traveling through the desert can be very perilous, but if you act right now you can hire your own personal bodyguard, FREE OF CHARGE, and my work is guaranteed!” He was so close to her that she swore she'd hit him if he came even one inch closer.

“Thanks but no thanks.” Faye gazed coolly at him. “I can handle myself.”

The blond-haired man seemed a little bit hurt, but he recovered almost instantly. Luckily (for him), nothing further transpired as two women forced their way through the crown.

“Vash! We've got to talk to you!”

Faye started at that. Vash?

Vash looked over toward Meryl and Millie, both running and breathing hard. He had been prepared to make run for it, fearing the usual lecture ending with Meryl hitting him on the head, but judging by the look on her face, she was worried about something far more serious. What is it? Did something happen?

Oh, Vash,” panted Meryl, “there was some guy asking about you.”

Vash looked at her with surprise. “Really. What did he look like?”

“He was tall with green hair and a black outfit. He said his name was Spike.” Meryl stared at him. “What difference does it make what he looked like? He seemed like a pretty suspicious character to me!”

Vash simply smiled. People looking for him weren't something new. It was actually getting really old. The $$60 billion bounty on his head made sure of that. He suddenly noticed the strange look on Faye's face. She was staring at him as if she was seeing him in a whole new light. Her expression changed immediately to one of a professional. To Vash's surprise, she drew a gun and aimed it right at him.

“So, you're Vash the Stampede,” she remarked smoothly. “I'm here for the bounty on your head.”

What? Awww man. And she was such a cutey, too!

“So am I,” came a gruff voice. Vash turned around to see Jet stepping out of the crowd, also with a gun aimed right at him.

“Don't forget about me.” Spike stepped out from the shadow of a nearby building. He had yet to draw his gun.

“Who are you?” Vash's voice was low and calm.

Spike shrugged, smiling. “Why, I'm just a simple, old-fashioned Cowboy.”

Congratulations! You have reached the end of Chapter 2! Please review, and tell me what you think! Suggestions are welcome.