Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Not For Bounty ❯ Finding Ed ( Chapter 4 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Not For Bounty
Author- Byakko Rei


Chapter 4
Finding Ed

It took three *long* hours through the Hyperspace Gates to reach the Earth; en route, Julia shared the Neo Red Dragon plans on her microdisc with Jet and Faye. Her own ESB profile was listed as incomplete, and disappointingly, only two other males were filed as complete. One was a stodgy accountant from Mars named Tom Hayden, and the other was a stalwart shipyard worker from Ganymede called Jorge Pederson. Faye's resentment for Julia only deepened after the disc seemed to indicate Spike's demise was permanent.

As the Bebop emerged through Earth's Gate, they were immediately hampered by meteoroids before they passed through the atmosphere. Once through, Earth's ravished surface became visible... as well as a heart wrenching pain in Faye's eyes. Julia had little doubt the woman remembered a happier time spent on her home planet fifty plus years ago... a time before her cryonic sleep and the Hyperspace Gate accident.

Before the Bebop could land, they were met by the sight of Red Dragon patrol ships and troops. Julia and Jet watched as Faye silently left them. Faye was going to deal with her pain in the best way she knew how: kick some enemy butt with her fully armed, modified military spaceship, Red Tail.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
< br> Faye drew the enemy's fire in an all out aerial dog fight, so the unarmed fishing ship could escape to find Ed's co-ordinates. She was in her element now... and already two of seven were history. She rolled out of the way of ground attackers and sprayed them with machine gun bullets as she passed over them. Her slower pursuer was gunned down instead. Heh.

As Faye flew sideways between two toppled buildings, two of the bogeys broke off from a diamond formation to circle above the buildings and wait to see if the Red Tail would emerge from the rubble. The two other patrol ships followed her... too close to one another. The aircraft collided in a spectacular tangle of shrapnel.

"Oops, single file ladies!" Faye exclaimed as the buildings began to collapse behind her from the explosion.

Faye armed two missiles for the last remaining bogeys just prior to shooting out of a rapidly narrowing gap. Her ship had barely escaped being crushed; and her targets were now sitting ducks. "Sayonara... it's been fun!!" Faye laughed, not sticking around for the pyrotechnic display.

Faye found the Bebop hidden in a deep crater near the co-ordinates Ed had supplied. It appeared to Faye that her comrades had been a two-person wrecking crew from the amount of blood spilt around the ship. Faye rejoined Jet and Julia near a huge pile of junk; they actually seemed relieved to see her.

The three of them entered the underground tunnel system where the bunkers were located. When they neared the East Wing, they encountered a man using a laser torch to cut open deadbolts on bunker doors.

The large man flipped up his visor and grinned. "Well if it ain't Jet Black and his Bebop Babe! I was ordered to find Spike's accomplices in these tunnels... and here you are. Nice of you to drop by and save me a boatload of time!" Jorge Pederson gave Julia a once over. "You sure are a wimpy replacement for Spike, ain'tcha fella," he sneered as he took a swing at her.

Julia ducked under the swarthy man's fist while fluidly snatching the torch from his other hand and tossing it over to Jet.

Weaponless, Jorge drew a pistol from behind his back and levelled it at Faye's head.

Faye rolled out of the way of Jorge's pistol shot and came up firing with her MP5 submachine gun. As the dock worker cartwheeled out of the way of her bullet spray, he moved within range of Julia's leg reach.

Julia crushed his throat with a single, powerful, well-timed kick. The ESB's head whipped backwards with a sickening pop, then he crumpled lifelessly to the floor. A Gatherer arrived for him and they disappeared.

Faye gave Julia a curious look, then smiled slowly. "All right then... let's go find Ed!" she exclaimed.

Jet knocked on the left door fifth from the end and identified himself. The door slowly cracked open and Ed peeked out, cat-like.

Ed then threw the door open and leapt excitedly around the three of them while Ein ran in dizzy circles barking. "Ed happy! See Faye-Faye, see Jet-Type person, see Man-Lady... Ein guard. Good Ein! Happy! Ed got food. Yummy food. Got Brussels sprouts for Faye-Faye," Ed babbled and plopped the can in front of Faye. "Got tuna for Jet-Type person!" Ed grinned as she handed a can to Jet. "Ed not know Man-Girl person... Ed give spinach," the petite teen exclaimed as she continued to bounce energetically about them. Ein sat in front of Julia watching her every move.

Faye went to the ration cabinets and flung all of the doors open. "FOOD!!" She grinned gleefully, filling every pocket available along with her arms. Everyone else face-faulted... then decided to follow her lead.

"Ed want to go now. Soldier mans here. Ed not like. Break Ed's home and Papa," Ed declared.

The food laden group headed cautiously for the Bebop and, other than Ein growling softly at Julia's heels, there were no further incidents.


To be continued....