Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ COWBOY BEBOP: THE SECOND MOVIE ❯ Act IV ( Chapter 4 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: jak981125 
Anime/Manga: Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Action | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 05.10.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.3K | Visits: 195 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Action | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 05.10.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.3K | Visits: 195 | Status: Completed
ACT IV
Ed was soon to discover that there’s nothing quite like trying to get a group of people mobilized and travel several million miles without being able to provide a good reason. All she was able to tell them was that Lau needed them on Mars right away.
Jet was still less than thrilled that Lau had swiped the Hammerhead. As promised, the Redtail and Swordfish were fixed on time. One advantage of living in a place like New York was not having to run off to Doohan’s every time the Swordfish got busted. There were plenty of experienced mechanics who could work with old parts.
It wasn’t too long before Jet, Faye, and Fatty joined Lau and Jet on the Bebop. None of them knew why they were needed on Mars and none of them liked leaving Earth considering what havoc Vera might be unleashing at that moment. But they had learned to trust Lau by now.
“Alright, so why are we here and why did we have to bring all the hardware?” asked Faye.
“Don’t tell me ISSP actually told you guys something,” said Jet.
“Sort of,” replied Lau. “What we know so far is that Vera wasn’t exactly part of the project.”
“What do you mean not exactly part of it?” asked Faye.
Lau explained how Vera had been victimized by Pierrot and was thus exposed to whatever was in his system. Everything suddenly made so much more sense to everyone. “I have all the sympathy in the world for her,” explained Lau. “But no way in hell can we just let her keep this up.”
“The problem is that even the research director didn’t know exactly what the experimental team put in Pierrot’s system,” said Bob. “We need specific records from the actual experiment and there don’t seem to be any online or Ed would have found them already. Jet, do you remember an old warehouse in Tharsis that the older cops used to call ‘The Lockbox’?”
“Sure,” replied Jet. “Wait a minute...I hope you’re not saying...no way, if the data we’re looking for is in there then you can just forget it. No way those guys would ever let us within a thousand miles of that place.”
“Of course they won’t LET us in,” replied Lau. “We’ll just have to crash the party. Thus the need for the hardware.”
“You’re crazy,” said Jet. “Do you have any idea what we’d be up against?”
“No and I rather you didn’t tell me so I don’t get tempted to chicken out,” replied Lau. “What I do know is what we’re up against on Earth if we don’t get that info. You guys managed to raid a syndicate headquarters. This should be relatively easy by comparison. Besides, I don’t see any other options here.”
“Do I get hazard pay for this?” asked Fatty with a grin.
“Hazard pay?” Jet couldn’t believe his ears. “Either one of two things will happen. We show up and they shoot us or we show up and they torch every single document inside before we can get what we need...oh you’re not going to listen to me are you? Aw hell, let’s do this.”
That night, a delivery truck pulled up to what looked like an abandoned warehouse on Tharsis. Lau was in the driver’s seat wearing a gray suit. As he pulled closer to the building, a man in blue jeans and a flannel shirt approached. He tapped on Lau’s window. As soon as he opened it, the guy pointed a gun at Lau. “This facility is closed. I suggest you leave.”
In response, Lau produced a police badge that once belonged to Bob. “I’m a little new at this, but I ran into some trouble and some buddies of mine told me to come here.”
“What’s in the truck?” asked the guard suspiciously.
“Some surveillance disks. Not enough to fill the whole truck of course, but I figured a delivery truck wouldn’t get searched.”
“I’ll have to take a look,” replied the guard. He headed to the back and opened the doors. Faye, Bob, Jet, and Fatty were back there. Faye shot the guard. Lau immediately hit the gas and crashed the truck through the warehouse doors. As soon as the truck came to a halt inside, everyone jumped out the back.
“I thought you said this place would be crawling with guards,” said Faye to Jet. “So far we’ve only seen one.”
Just then, a shot rang out which hit the truck, followed by several others. The Bebop crew scattered for cover. One bullet hit the gas tank, causing the truck to explode. Lau looked around him but it was hard to see who was shooting. The lighting was poor. Just then, Fatty yelled out. A bullet hit him in the back. Lau caught a glimpse of the guy who had fired and shot him. Jet fired a flare, exposing two others who were promptly shot by Bob and Faye.
“Dammit, why don’t you people ever listen to me?” yelled Jet. “I warned you about this place!”
“Shut up and keep shooting!” hollered Faye.
Just then, Lau notice a figure in a trench coat run in through where the doors had been. Something told him not to shoot at this guy. The guy in the coat ran over to a panel and flipped a switch. All at once, the whole place was lit up. It was the director! He fired at a man standing on a crate directly above Lau. Lau had never heard him coming. He gave the director a smile. Just then, a shot hit the director in the chest. Jet fired several shots in the direction it came from. Upon hearing a groan, Jet figured he hit the shooter. He was right.
At that point, all was silent. Jet and Bob searched the building quickly to see if there were any more. Lau ran over to the fallen director. “You asked me if I really wanted to redeem myself,” he said to Lau in a weak voice. “Does this answer your question?” Lau nodded. “God forgive me...” The director’s eyes closed for the last time.
“Ah!”
Lau had completely forgotten about Fatty. Faye was trying to keep him from moving but in his pain, he wasn’t thinking clearly. “You want to end up paralyzed?” asked Faye. “Just stay still, dammit!”
Just then, Jet and Bob returned holding a disk and file of papers. “I think this is what we came for,” said Jet. “I can’t promise that. We have to get out of here right away. How’s Fatty?”
Fatty groaned in response. Jet lifted up Fatty’s shirt and looked at the exit wound. “It’s too far to the left to have hit the spine. We’re gonna have to carry him out of here. And no jokes about how much he weighs. There’s no time. Everyone grab a limb and let’s move it.”
Everyone regretted the loss of the delivery truck right away. They had to carry Fatty a couple of blocks up the road to Doc’s office. “This won’t be some simple patch up job,” we warned. “This is serious surgery and it’ll take me and my nurse at least three hours and it’s going to use up a lot of equipment. Sorry Jet, but this one won’t be free.”
“I understand,” replied Jet. “Thanks for doing this, Doc.”
“Hey, where would I be without you guys?” replied Doc. “Out of business, that’s where.”
The Bebop crew simply had to sit and wait. They could hear sirens down the block as police units showed up at the warehouse. All of them were nervous that any minute now, a cop would come walking into the office looking for them.
“We should have let the cops raid that place,” muttered Faye. “All that killing...”
“That would have been the worst thing we could have done,” replied Bob. “Someone would have tipped off the guards and by the time the police arrived, the warehouse would be on fire and the guards would be long gone.”
Lau was trying to look over the data in the folder. “Jet, this might as well be written in Pig Latin. I can’t understand any of this.”
“Well don’t look at me,” replied Jet.
“I guess we could have Ed translate it for us when we get back,” said Faye.
Jet shook his head. “Her expertise is mostly computers. This is advanced bio-chemistry.”
Just then, Doc came out of his office. “Well, he lost about a quarter of his left kidney and a couple pints of blood, but he’ll be OK.”
Suddenly, Lau had an idea. “Hey Doc, how would you like to make a few extra wulongs?”
“For what?”
“There’s some data we’d like you to look over.”
While Fatty rested up in Doc’s examining room, Doc looked over the data they had retrieved from the warehouse. He was astounded. “This is amazing.”
“What is it?” asked Faye.
“Nano machines,” he replied. You had better believe that caught Faye and Jet’s attention. “Had the subject been given chemical treatments, they would have passed out of the body eventually. What was injected instead were a variety of nano machines. These are highly advanced and capable of using raw materials from the host’s body to reproduce themselves. Several of them are designed to effect the nervous system. These have two purposes. For one thing, they do wonders for the senses, reflexes, and movement. Another set of them affect the patient psychologically, making them more aggressive.”
“That set must have been defective,” replied Lau. “So far they’ve induced madness in every subject.”
“Some of these nano machines are prototypes,” said Doc. “The booklet makes some rather outrageous claims.”
“Like what?” asked Faye.
“It claims some of them can create energy shields outside the body, and this one here supposedly can cause flight,” replied Doc “You’ve actually seen this?”
“Sure have,” replied Lau.
Doc shook his head. “It’s like something out of Frankenstein. People shouldn’t be tampering that much with the human body.”
“Could these machines be passed on through body fluids?” asked Lau.
“From the data here, I would guess that they could be passed through the blood into other systems,” said Doc.
“Would they have a different effect on women than on men?” asked Bob.
Doc shrugged. “I don’t suppose the data says anything about disabling the machines, does it?” asked Jet.
“Nope. I suppose a protein inhibitor therapy might work. But that’s a long-term solution.”
“Look Doc,” said Lau. “The fact is that we’re trying to catch a woman who has these things inside of her. She’s gone completely nuts and people are getting hurt. Isn’t there anything in there that could tell you how we could stop her?”
“You mean other than getting injected with this stuff yourself?” asked Doc. “It would be tough. The senses react ten times more quickly under the effects of the nano machines. As soon as a bullet or explosive device is detected by one of the five senses it triggers an involuntary reaction which raises the shield. It’s programmed to respond to those two particular stimuli. Any other perceived attack will activate the nerves causing either a flight or attack that is faster and packs more strength than a human being could normally muster.”
“Great,” replied Jet sarcastically. “Now all we have to do is disable all five of her senses at once and she’ll be at our mercy. What the hell was ISSP thinking making this in the first place?”
“All five of her senses at once?” remarked Faye. “Maybe if she were unconscious...”
“And how would we knock her out?” interrupted Jet.
“You’re right, bad idea,” replied Faye.
“Sorry I couldn’t be of more help,” replied Doc. “I was just about to leave for the night and my van’s parked outside. I’d be glad to give you guys a lift back to your ship. Unless of course you have your heart set on carrying your friend all the way back there.”
Back on Earth, Vera hadn’t left her belltower all day long. As afternoon approached she saw a young girl roller skating on the street below. The girl tried to make a jump from the street to the sidewalk and tripped on the curb. She landed face first on the pavement and began to cry pitifully but no one was around to comfort her. Vera descended down to the street behind the girl and picked her up. “You hurt sweetie? Don’t worry, I’m a nurse.”
The girl looked up at her. “Mama said I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”
“That’s good advice for a little girl,” replied Vera. “But when you get to be my age sometimes you don’t know anyone anymore and everyone is a stranger. You can’t just not talk to anyone, can you?” The girl wasn’t quite sure she understood what Vera had said but it seemed to make sense so she nodded. Vera picked the girl up in her arms and, to the girl’s astonishment, flew back up to the belltower.
Over at the MFR office, no one was left to man the place except for Ed and Matthew. Ein sat by a window watching the people go by and Julia was being kept in a car seat on top of Jet’s desk. Matthew sighed as he looked at the two empty chairs around the break table that his buddies used to occupy.
Meanwhile, the Bebop was racing back to Earth. Fatty was in a lot of pain. Lau read over Doc’s notes again and again. “Please don’t tell me that whole trip was a waste,” he said to himself. “Please tell me I didn’t risk the lives of my wife and friends for nothing. There just has to be something useful here.”
On the belltower, Vera was cleaning up the girl’s cuts and scrapes. The girl stared at her in awe. “Hey lady, where did you learn to fly?”
“I didn’t learn it,” she replied. “It’s no different than a scar. Something left over from something painful. I know you don’t understand what I’m saying but that’s how it has to be.”
The girl was silent for a moment. She studied Vera’s face. “How come you’re so sad?” she asked. “Is it because everyone is a stranger? Is that what happens when you can fly?”
“You’re a pretty sharp kid,” replied Vera. “I trusted people and I got hurt because of it. And now everyone’s a stranger because I could never trust anyone again. And now I’m not really anybody anymore. It’s a tightrope, kid. If you trust people, they’ll hurt you bad. If you don’t you won’t be anybody. But maybe if someone could make the bad people in the world go away then people could trust each other again without getting hurt. Then you could go ahead and talk to all the strangers you want and nothing bad would ever happen. That’s the only way I can ever be a real person again.”
“You look real to me.”
“Thank you,” replied Vera. She picked the girl back up and took her back down to the sidewalk. “Now you run along. I have things to take care of.” The girl began to walk away. When she looked back, Vera was nowhere to be seen.
The Bebop landed in the East River and docked there. An ambulance met them at the pier. They had radioed ahead for someone to come and pick up Fatty. As night fell, Jet called the office. Ed answered the phone. “Ed, it’s me. Did you get any business while we were gone?”
“No,” she replied. “Not so much as a shoplifter.”
“That’s just as well,” said Jet. “We’re back. The Bebop’s over at the pier right now. Why don’t you and Matthew come over here and we can all have dinner together.”
“Edward’s not very hungry,” she replied. “It’s too sad and lonely around here now. Besides...none of you can cook.”
“We’ll get take-out,” said Jet. “Come on over. Even if you’re not hungry, I haven’t seen much of you the past few days and I miss my little girl. Come on, don’t you want to see your old dad?”
Ed smiled. “Yes papa, Edward misses you too.”
“And anyway, someone has to bring the baby back to Faye and Lau. So come on over.”
“OK, you convinced Edward.”
Matthew drove Ed, Ein, and Julia over to the Bebop. Jet still had Ed’s Falcon so there was no other way for her to get there. The invite was also Jet’s little way of showing Matthew that he had nothing against him.
Just as they arrived at the ship, they saw a pizza delivery boy leaving. On the ship, Faye was overjoyed to have Julia back. She barely touched her food and spent most of the time playing with Julia. Ed loved watching the two of them together. Lau barely touched his food either. He was too busy reading the notes for probably the hundredth time. Finally he threw them down on the coffee table in disgust. “The hell with this. Maybe tomorrow something will come to me, but right now I’m drawing a blank here. I may as well call it a night and eat something.”
“That’s the spirit,” said Bob with a grin as he reached for his third slice of anchovy pizza. He noticed Ed staring at him. “What?”
“How can you eat a pizza with little dead fishies on it?” she asked.
“Are you kidding?” he replied. “This stuff is the best. Come on, you have to try one.” He held one up to Ed and she nearly turned green just looking at it. “Suit yourself,” he said as he ate that one too.
Lau ate a couple of slices and then went over to take the baby from Faye so she could eat something. Jet picked up the notes when he wasn’t looking and headed off for the control room. Matthew followed him in. Jet looked up from the notes and saw Matthew come in.
“I don’t want to put any more pressure on Lau but if these notes can’t help us, then we have a problem,” he said.
“What happened on Mars?” asked Matthew.
“We raided a secret storage facility to get this information on Vera’s enhancements,” replied Jet. “The problem is that there were some casualties on both sides. I know Lau. It’ll drive him crazy thinking blood was shed for no good reason. But it would make a world of difference to him if the stuff we found can help us stop Vera. Truth be told, if this doesn’t help us then that trip and all that happened really was a waste.”
“You want me to look it over?” asked Matthew.
“You know anything about nano machines?”
“No.”
“Then you wouldn’t be much help. Thanks for offering though.” Matthew turned and walked back towards the living room. “Hey!” Matthew turned around. “I want you to know something, kid. First of all, you’ve done a great job for us and second of all I don’t have a problem with you seeing Ed.”
Matthew went back to the living room. “It’s getting late,” he said to Ed. “We should get going. I’ll give you and Ein a ride home.”
“Wait, we brought back the Falcon,” said Lau. “Weren’t you going to take that back?”
Ed thought for a moment. “True, but then Ed wouldn’t get to ride home with Mr. Studmuffin here. Ed can pick it up later. Let’s go, cutie.”
“Mr. Studmuffin?” repeated Faye as she watched them go. “It’s official. The Ed I knew is gone.”
Matthew drove through the Manhattan streets towards Jet and Ed’s apartment. As he drove down one side street, he noticed a pedestrian standing under a street light. He pulled the car into the next alley he saw.
“Why are we stopping?” asked Ed. “Oh Edward gets it. Good make-out spot.” She wrapped her arms around him.
“I’d love to, but not now,” he replied. “I just saw a twenty million bounty head a block behind us. I could use some back-up. I know Jet won’t be happy about this, but you think you could help me grab this guy?”
“Ooh, Edward will help!” she replied excitedly. “But what is this guy wanted for anyway?”
“He’s a virus expert,” said Matthew. “His name is Thomas McMahon. He released a virus into a subway last year. Fifteen people almost died. They say this guy can construct any kind of virus he wants.”
“Well the only type of virus Ed knows about is the computer type. If we go after this guy, could he make us sick?”
“Probably not,” replied Matthew. He and Ed got out of the car and opened the trunk. A couple of utility belts labeled “ISSP” were sitting in back. Each belt had bounty hunting supplies and one semi-automatic with extra clips. The two of them stepped out of the alley and into the shadows. They crept up to McMahon. Unfortunately they didn’t creep quietly enough. He heard them and started running. They chased him down the street towards a parking garage. They couldn’t see him when they entered.
“If he’s in here, then this is the only way out,” said Matthew. “I’ll start searching. You guard the exit. He wouldn’t be able to leave without going through here.”
Matthew drew his gun and started searching between cars. Just then, Ed heard an engine starting on the level above them. A small sports car came flying down the ramp and towards the exit. Ed drew her gun. Jet had probably taken her target shooting over a hundred times but she never had to aim at a moving target before. She fired several shots at the tires, one of which found its mark. The car flipped over. I’m not entirely sure she didn’t have her eyes closed the whole time she was shooting, but oh well.
McMahon wasted no time at all. Even upside down he managed to extract himself from the car fairly quickly. No sooner had he gotten out than he found himself face to face with Ed. She wasn’t lying when she said Applederry had taught her to fight. And this was a guy who could beat Spike. She punched McMahon right in the gut. He threw a kick at her which she dodged. While his one leg was still in the air she kicked his other leg sending him to the pavement.
He picked himself up fairly quickly and tried to run back up to the upper level. Just then, Matthew appeared. He pulled out a bolo and tossed it towards McMahon. It wrapped around his legs and he fell. Matthew wasted no time in running up to him and cuffing him.
Ed approached with a smile. “Edward is good at this, right?”
Matthew grinned. “Edward is great at this. If Jet knew how good you were, maybe he’d change his mind...On second thought, no. He’s a parent.”
“I’m only worth twenty million!” yelled McMahon. “I’ll give you thirty million to let me go!”
“Not gonna happen,” replied Matthew. “Besides, I think my friends may very well have a use for you.”
END OF ACT IV
(c) 2004 Joseph Kerner
Ed was soon to discover that there’s nothing quite like trying to get a group of people mobilized and travel several million miles without being able to provide a good reason. All she was able to tell them was that Lau needed them on Mars right away.
Jet was still less than thrilled that Lau had swiped the Hammerhead. As promised, the Redtail and Swordfish were fixed on time. One advantage of living in a place like New York was not having to run off to Doohan’s every time the Swordfish got busted. There were plenty of experienced mechanics who could work with old parts.
It wasn’t too long before Jet, Faye, and Fatty joined Lau and Jet on the Bebop. None of them knew why they were needed on Mars and none of them liked leaving Earth considering what havoc Vera might be unleashing at that moment. But they had learned to trust Lau by now.
“Alright, so why are we here and why did we have to bring all the hardware?” asked Faye.
“Don’t tell me ISSP actually told you guys something,” said Jet.
“Sort of,” replied Lau. “What we know so far is that Vera wasn’t exactly part of the project.”
“What do you mean not exactly part of it?” asked Faye.
Lau explained how Vera had been victimized by Pierrot and was thus exposed to whatever was in his system. Everything suddenly made so much more sense to everyone. “I have all the sympathy in the world for her,” explained Lau. “But no way in hell can we just let her keep this up.”
“The problem is that even the research director didn’t know exactly what the experimental team put in Pierrot’s system,” said Bob. “We need specific records from the actual experiment and there don’t seem to be any online or Ed would have found them already. Jet, do you remember an old warehouse in Tharsis that the older cops used to call ‘The Lockbox’?”
“Sure,” replied Jet. “Wait a minute...I hope you’re not saying...no way, if the data we’re looking for is in there then you can just forget it. No way those guys would ever let us within a thousand miles of that place.”
“Of course they won’t LET us in,” replied Lau. “We’ll just have to crash the party. Thus the need for the hardware.”
“You’re crazy,” said Jet. “Do you have any idea what we’d be up against?”
“No and I rather you didn’t tell me so I don’t get tempted to chicken out,” replied Lau. “What I do know is what we’re up against on Earth if we don’t get that info. You guys managed to raid a syndicate headquarters. This should be relatively easy by comparison. Besides, I don’t see any other options here.”
“Do I get hazard pay for this?” asked Fatty with a grin.
“Hazard pay?” Jet couldn’t believe his ears. “Either one of two things will happen. We show up and they shoot us or we show up and they torch every single document inside before we can get what we need...oh you’re not going to listen to me are you? Aw hell, let’s do this.”
That night, a delivery truck pulled up to what looked like an abandoned warehouse on Tharsis. Lau was in the driver’s seat wearing a gray suit. As he pulled closer to the building, a man in blue jeans and a flannel shirt approached. He tapped on Lau’s window. As soon as he opened it, the guy pointed a gun at Lau. “This facility is closed. I suggest you leave.”
In response, Lau produced a police badge that once belonged to Bob. “I’m a little new at this, but I ran into some trouble and some buddies of mine told me to come here.”
“What’s in the truck?” asked the guard suspiciously.
“Some surveillance disks. Not enough to fill the whole truck of course, but I figured a delivery truck wouldn’t get searched.”
“I’ll have to take a look,” replied the guard. He headed to the back and opened the doors. Faye, Bob, Jet, and Fatty were back there. Faye shot the guard. Lau immediately hit the gas and crashed the truck through the warehouse doors. As soon as the truck came to a halt inside, everyone jumped out the back.
“I thought you said this place would be crawling with guards,” said Faye to Jet. “So far we’ve only seen one.”
Just then, a shot rang out which hit the truck, followed by several others. The Bebop crew scattered for cover. One bullet hit the gas tank, causing the truck to explode. Lau looked around him but it was hard to see who was shooting. The lighting was poor. Just then, Fatty yelled out. A bullet hit him in the back. Lau caught a glimpse of the guy who had fired and shot him. Jet fired a flare, exposing two others who were promptly shot by Bob and Faye.
“Dammit, why don’t you people ever listen to me?” yelled Jet. “I warned you about this place!”
“Shut up and keep shooting!” hollered Faye.
Just then, Lau notice a figure in a trench coat run in through where the doors had been. Something told him not to shoot at this guy. The guy in the coat ran over to a panel and flipped a switch. All at once, the whole place was lit up. It was the director! He fired at a man standing on a crate directly above Lau. Lau had never heard him coming. He gave the director a smile. Just then, a shot hit the director in the chest. Jet fired several shots in the direction it came from. Upon hearing a groan, Jet figured he hit the shooter. He was right.
At that point, all was silent. Jet and Bob searched the building quickly to see if there were any more. Lau ran over to the fallen director. “You asked me if I really wanted to redeem myself,” he said to Lau in a weak voice. “Does this answer your question?” Lau nodded. “God forgive me...” The director’s eyes closed for the last time.
“Ah!”
Lau had completely forgotten about Fatty. Faye was trying to keep him from moving but in his pain, he wasn’t thinking clearly. “You want to end up paralyzed?” asked Faye. “Just stay still, dammit!”
Just then, Jet and Bob returned holding a disk and file of papers. “I think this is what we came for,” said Jet. “I can’t promise that. We have to get out of here right away. How’s Fatty?”
Fatty groaned in response. Jet lifted up Fatty’s shirt and looked at the exit wound. “It’s too far to the left to have hit the spine. We’re gonna have to carry him out of here. And no jokes about how much he weighs. There’s no time. Everyone grab a limb and let’s move it.”
Everyone regretted the loss of the delivery truck right away. They had to carry Fatty a couple of blocks up the road to Doc’s office. “This won’t be some simple patch up job,” we warned. “This is serious surgery and it’ll take me and my nurse at least three hours and it’s going to use up a lot of equipment. Sorry Jet, but this one won’t be free.”
“I understand,” replied Jet. “Thanks for doing this, Doc.”
“Hey, where would I be without you guys?” replied Doc. “Out of business, that’s where.”
The Bebop crew simply had to sit and wait. They could hear sirens down the block as police units showed up at the warehouse. All of them were nervous that any minute now, a cop would come walking into the office looking for them.
“We should have let the cops raid that place,” muttered Faye. “All that killing...”
“That would have been the worst thing we could have done,” replied Bob. “Someone would have tipped off the guards and by the time the police arrived, the warehouse would be on fire and the guards would be long gone.”
Lau was trying to look over the data in the folder. “Jet, this might as well be written in Pig Latin. I can’t understand any of this.”
“Well don’t look at me,” replied Jet.
“I guess we could have Ed translate it for us when we get back,” said Faye.
Jet shook his head. “Her expertise is mostly computers. This is advanced bio-chemistry.”
Just then, Doc came out of his office. “Well, he lost about a quarter of his left kidney and a couple pints of blood, but he’ll be OK.”
Suddenly, Lau had an idea. “Hey Doc, how would you like to make a few extra wulongs?”
“For what?”
“There’s some data we’d like you to look over.”
While Fatty rested up in Doc’s examining room, Doc looked over the data they had retrieved from the warehouse. He was astounded. “This is amazing.”
“What is it?” asked Faye.
“Nano machines,” he replied. You had better believe that caught Faye and Jet’s attention. “Had the subject been given chemical treatments, they would have passed out of the body eventually. What was injected instead were a variety of nano machines. These are highly advanced and capable of using raw materials from the host’s body to reproduce themselves. Several of them are designed to effect the nervous system. These have two purposes. For one thing, they do wonders for the senses, reflexes, and movement. Another set of them affect the patient psychologically, making them more aggressive.”
“That set must have been defective,” replied Lau. “So far they’ve induced madness in every subject.”
“Some of these nano machines are prototypes,” said Doc. “The booklet makes some rather outrageous claims.”
“Like what?” asked Faye.
“It claims some of them can create energy shields outside the body, and this one here supposedly can cause flight,” replied Doc “You’ve actually seen this?”
“Sure have,” replied Lau.
Doc shook his head. “It’s like something out of Frankenstein. People shouldn’t be tampering that much with the human body.”
“Could these machines be passed on through body fluids?” asked Lau.
“From the data here, I would guess that they could be passed through the blood into other systems,” said Doc.
“Would they have a different effect on women than on men?” asked Bob.
Doc shrugged. “I don’t suppose the data says anything about disabling the machines, does it?” asked Jet.
“Nope. I suppose a protein inhibitor therapy might work. But that’s a long-term solution.”
“Look Doc,” said Lau. “The fact is that we’re trying to catch a woman who has these things inside of her. She’s gone completely nuts and people are getting hurt. Isn’t there anything in there that could tell you how we could stop her?”
“You mean other than getting injected with this stuff yourself?” asked Doc. “It would be tough. The senses react ten times more quickly under the effects of the nano machines. As soon as a bullet or explosive device is detected by one of the five senses it triggers an involuntary reaction which raises the shield. It’s programmed to respond to those two particular stimuli. Any other perceived attack will activate the nerves causing either a flight or attack that is faster and packs more strength than a human being could normally muster.”
“Great,” replied Jet sarcastically. “Now all we have to do is disable all five of her senses at once and she’ll be at our mercy. What the hell was ISSP thinking making this in the first place?”
“All five of her senses at once?” remarked Faye. “Maybe if she were unconscious...”
“And how would we knock her out?” interrupted Jet.
“You’re right, bad idea,” replied Faye.
“Sorry I couldn’t be of more help,” replied Doc. “I was just about to leave for the night and my van’s parked outside. I’d be glad to give you guys a lift back to your ship. Unless of course you have your heart set on carrying your friend all the way back there.”
Back on Earth, Vera hadn’t left her belltower all day long. As afternoon approached she saw a young girl roller skating on the street below. The girl tried to make a jump from the street to the sidewalk and tripped on the curb. She landed face first on the pavement and began to cry pitifully but no one was around to comfort her. Vera descended down to the street behind the girl and picked her up. “You hurt sweetie? Don’t worry, I’m a nurse.”
The girl looked up at her. “Mama said I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”
“That’s good advice for a little girl,” replied Vera. “But when you get to be my age sometimes you don’t know anyone anymore and everyone is a stranger. You can’t just not talk to anyone, can you?” The girl wasn’t quite sure she understood what Vera had said but it seemed to make sense so she nodded. Vera picked the girl up in her arms and, to the girl’s astonishment, flew back up to the belltower.
Over at the MFR office, no one was left to man the place except for Ed and Matthew. Ein sat by a window watching the people go by and Julia was being kept in a car seat on top of Jet’s desk. Matthew sighed as he looked at the two empty chairs around the break table that his buddies used to occupy.
Meanwhile, the Bebop was racing back to Earth. Fatty was in a lot of pain. Lau read over Doc’s notes again and again. “Please don’t tell me that whole trip was a waste,” he said to himself. “Please tell me I didn’t risk the lives of my wife and friends for nothing. There just has to be something useful here.”
On the belltower, Vera was cleaning up the girl’s cuts and scrapes. The girl stared at her in awe. “Hey lady, where did you learn to fly?”
“I didn’t learn it,” she replied. “It’s no different than a scar. Something left over from something painful. I know you don’t understand what I’m saying but that’s how it has to be.”
The girl was silent for a moment. She studied Vera’s face. “How come you’re so sad?” she asked. “Is it because everyone is a stranger? Is that what happens when you can fly?”
“You’re a pretty sharp kid,” replied Vera. “I trusted people and I got hurt because of it. And now everyone’s a stranger because I could never trust anyone again. And now I’m not really anybody anymore. It’s a tightrope, kid. If you trust people, they’ll hurt you bad. If you don’t you won’t be anybody. But maybe if someone could make the bad people in the world go away then people could trust each other again without getting hurt. Then you could go ahead and talk to all the strangers you want and nothing bad would ever happen. That’s the only way I can ever be a real person again.”
“You look real to me.”
“Thank you,” replied Vera. She picked the girl back up and took her back down to the sidewalk. “Now you run along. I have things to take care of.” The girl began to walk away. When she looked back, Vera was nowhere to be seen.
The Bebop landed in the East River and docked there. An ambulance met them at the pier. They had radioed ahead for someone to come and pick up Fatty. As night fell, Jet called the office. Ed answered the phone. “Ed, it’s me. Did you get any business while we were gone?”
“No,” she replied. “Not so much as a shoplifter.”
“That’s just as well,” said Jet. “We’re back. The Bebop’s over at the pier right now. Why don’t you and Matthew come over here and we can all have dinner together.”
“Edward’s not very hungry,” she replied. “It’s too sad and lonely around here now. Besides...none of you can cook.”
“We’ll get take-out,” said Jet. “Come on over. Even if you’re not hungry, I haven’t seen much of you the past few days and I miss my little girl. Come on, don’t you want to see your old dad?”
Ed smiled. “Yes papa, Edward misses you too.”
“And anyway, someone has to bring the baby back to Faye and Lau. So come on over.”
“OK, you convinced Edward.”
Matthew drove Ed, Ein, and Julia over to the Bebop. Jet still had Ed’s Falcon so there was no other way for her to get there. The invite was also Jet’s little way of showing Matthew that he had nothing against him.
Just as they arrived at the ship, they saw a pizza delivery boy leaving. On the ship, Faye was overjoyed to have Julia back. She barely touched her food and spent most of the time playing with Julia. Ed loved watching the two of them together. Lau barely touched his food either. He was too busy reading the notes for probably the hundredth time. Finally he threw them down on the coffee table in disgust. “The hell with this. Maybe tomorrow something will come to me, but right now I’m drawing a blank here. I may as well call it a night and eat something.”
“That’s the spirit,” said Bob with a grin as he reached for his third slice of anchovy pizza. He noticed Ed staring at him. “What?”
“How can you eat a pizza with little dead fishies on it?” she asked.
“Are you kidding?” he replied. “This stuff is the best. Come on, you have to try one.” He held one up to Ed and she nearly turned green just looking at it. “Suit yourself,” he said as he ate that one too.
Lau ate a couple of slices and then went over to take the baby from Faye so she could eat something. Jet picked up the notes when he wasn’t looking and headed off for the control room. Matthew followed him in. Jet looked up from the notes and saw Matthew come in.
“I don’t want to put any more pressure on Lau but if these notes can’t help us, then we have a problem,” he said.
“What happened on Mars?” asked Matthew.
“We raided a secret storage facility to get this information on Vera’s enhancements,” replied Jet. “The problem is that there were some casualties on both sides. I know Lau. It’ll drive him crazy thinking blood was shed for no good reason. But it would make a world of difference to him if the stuff we found can help us stop Vera. Truth be told, if this doesn’t help us then that trip and all that happened really was a waste.”
“You want me to look it over?” asked Matthew.
“You know anything about nano machines?”
“No.”
“Then you wouldn’t be much help. Thanks for offering though.” Matthew turned and walked back towards the living room. “Hey!” Matthew turned around. “I want you to know something, kid. First of all, you’ve done a great job for us and second of all I don’t have a problem with you seeing Ed.”
Matthew went back to the living room. “It’s getting late,” he said to Ed. “We should get going. I’ll give you and Ein a ride home.”
“Wait, we brought back the Falcon,” said Lau. “Weren’t you going to take that back?”
Ed thought for a moment. “True, but then Ed wouldn’t get to ride home with Mr. Studmuffin here. Ed can pick it up later. Let’s go, cutie.”
“Mr. Studmuffin?” repeated Faye as she watched them go. “It’s official. The Ed I knew is gone.”
Matthew drove through the Manhattan streets towards Jet and Ed’s apartment. As he drove down one side street, he noticed a pedestrian standing under a street light. He pulled the car into the next alley he saw.
“Why are we stopping?” asked Ed. “Oh Edward gets it. Good make-out spot.” She wrapped her arms around him.
“I’d love to, but not now,” he replied. “I just saw a twenty million bounty head a block behind us. I could use some back-up. I know Jet won’t be happy about this, but you think you could help me grab this guy?”
“Ooh, Edward will help!” she replied excitedly. “But what is this guy wanted for anyway?”
“He’s a virus expert,” said Matthew. “His name is Thomas McMahon. He released a virus into a subway last year. Fifteen people almost died. They say this guy can construct any kind of virus he wants.”
“Well the only type of virus Ed knows about is the computer type. If we go after this guy, could he make us sick?”
“Probably not,” replied Matthew. He and Ed got out of the car and opened the trunk. A couple of utility belts labeled “ISSP” were sitting in back. Each belt had bounty hunting supplies and one semi-automatic with extra clips. The two of them stepped out of the alley and into the shadows. They crept up to McMahon. Unfortunately they didn’t creep quietly enough. He heard them and started running. They chased him down the street towards a parking garage. They couldn’t see him when they entered.
“If he’s in here, then this is the only way out,” said Matthew. “I’ll start searching. You guard the exit. He wouldn’t be able to leave without going through here.”
Matthew drew his gun and started searching between cars. Just then, Ed heard an engine starting on the level above them. A small sports car came flying down the ramp and towards the exit. Ed drew her gun. Jet had probably taken her target shooting over a hundred times but she never had to aim at a moving target before. She fired several shots at the tires, one of which found its mark. The car flipped over. I’m not entirely sure she didn’t have her eyes closed the whole time she was shooting, but oh well.
McMahon wasted no time at all. Even upside down he managed to extract himself from the car fairly quickly. No sooner had he gotten out than he found himself face to face with Ed. She wasn’t lying when she said Applederry had taught her to fight. And this was a guy who could beat Spike. She punched McMahon right in the gut. He threw a kick at her which she dodged. While his one leg was still in the air she kicked his other leg sending him to the pavement.
He picked himself up fairly quickly and tried to run back up to the upper level. Just then, Matthew appeared. He pulled out a bolo and tossed it towards McMahon. It wrapped around his legs and he fell. Matthew wasted no time in running up to him and cuffing him.
Ed approached with a smile. “Edward is good at this, right?”
Matthew grinned. “Edward is great at this. If Jet knew how good you were, maybe he’d change his mind...On second thought, no. He’s a parent.”
“I’m only worth twenty million!” yelled McMahon. “I’ll give you thirty million to let me go!”
“Not gonna happen,” replied Matthew. “Besides, I think my friends may very well have a use for you.”
END OF ACT IV
(c) 2004 Joseph Kerner