Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ COWBOY BEBOP: THE SECOND MOVIE ❯ Act V ( Chapter 5 )
[ 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: 3.8K | Visits: 210 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Action | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 05.10.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.8K | Visits: 210 | Status: Completed
ACT V
Jet showed up at the police station where Ed and Matthew had taken McMahon. “You two had better have a damn good explanation for this!” he said angrily.
“There was no time to wait for back-up,” explained Matthew.
“And so you risked my daughter’s life because twenty million wulongs might get away?” asked Jet angrily. “I thought you loved her. You sure aren’t acting like it.”
“It wasn’t about the money, papa,” said Ed. “Matthew had an idea.” She whispered something in Jet’s ear.
“Things are getting crucial,” said Matthew. “I figured it might be the only way to put a stop to this.”
“I’ll admit, that is pretty clever,” replied Jet. “But you should have at least called for back-up and if he tried to leave before we showed up, then and only then should you have gone ahead and did what you did.”
“Sorry sir,” replied Matthew. “I hadn’t thought of that. But Ed was magnificent out there. You should have seen her.”
“I’m glad I didn’t,” replied Jet. “I would have been terrified. Come on Ed, let’s go home.” The two of them left. A policeman approached Matthew and gave him his bounty. He barely noticed. He was too busy watching Ed leave.
Back at their apartment, Ed was pleading her case to Jet. “Ed can do this. Ed caught that guy, didn’t she?”
“Beginner’s luck,” said Jet angrily.
“And there was the guy in the park, and there was that fake doctor, and there was one more you don’t know about.”
“When was that?” asked Jet.
“When Ed was thirteen she caught a mushroom dealer,” she replied. “Ed is a lot bigger and tougher now. Why won’t you give Ed a chance?”
“Ed, take a look at my face,” said Jet. “You ever notice how messed up it is near this eye? That didn’t come from my police work, it came from a bounty head. In the time I’ve been doing this line of work I’ve been stabbed twice, shot three times, and pushed out of a third story window. And I’m a lot bigger than you are. Now look, this is the life I chose for myself and I can live with it. But I wanted something better for you. Something safer.”
“You mean something boring,” she replied. “What did you want Edward to do? Go have a nine to five white collar job in some office where I’d waste my life in boredom? That’s just not Edward. Edward has always been different than everyone else. You know that better than anyone. When Edward caught that guy it just felt so right.”
Jet was silent. Ed decided she had said enough and went off to bed.
The next morning, Lau and a young man in a three-piece suit entered the police station where Ed and Matthew had brought McMahon. They spoke to the desk sergeant and were led to a small room with a table and some chairs and nothing else. “We’ll bring him right up,” said the sergeant.
Within a few minutes, McMahon was brought in and sat down across from them. “What’s this all about?” he asked. “Who are you two?”
“I’m Assistant District Attorney Michael Simmons,” replied the man in the suit. “This fellow here is Lau Xiang, a representative of the fugitive recovery firm that caught you last night.”
“Yeah? Well I have nothing to say to you two without a lawyer.”
“So call your lawyer,” replied Simmons. “I think he’d be quite interested in hearing the offer we have for you.”
“What kind of offer?” asked McMahon.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” replied Lau. “We can’t tell you that now. You lawyered up, remember? We can’t really say anything to you now. Unless of course...”
“Alright, I get it,” replied McMahon. “Forget the lawyer. Now what do you two want? Or better yet, what are you guys willing to do for me?”
“You know full well we have an open and shut case against you,” replied Simmons. “We could put you away for a very long time. However, if you do a little something for us, I can see to it that you get lifetime probation. I can only do that because luckily, none of your victims died.”
“I’m liking this,” replied McMahon. “But what exactly did you have in mind when you said you wanted me to do a little something? You don’t want me to rat someone out do you? Because if you do, I know people who scare me a lot more than Attica.”
“It’s nothing like that,” replied Lau.
“This is going to sound like an odd request,” said Simmons. “The fact of the matter is we would like you to design a very specific virus for us.”
“This is a joke, right?” replied McMahon.”
“No, this is a last resort,” replied Lau.
“Mr. McMahon, I can assure you, we are quite serious,” said Simmons. “We believe that a certain type of virus may be the only way of stopping someone who has posed a grave danger to the people of this city. The DA reluctantly agreed with me that stopping this public menace is a bigger priority than locking you up.”
“What kind of virus do you want me to make?” asked McMahon.
Lau handed him all of the information they had acquired on Mars along with Doc’s notes. “Some recreational reading for you,” he said. “Find something that could counteract that stuff.”
“You will also have to sign a confidentiality agreement,” said Simmons. “And one more thing, whatever you make can’t hurt anyone else. If that’s not possible, the DA won’t approve the deal.”
“It would be easy to infect and disable someone who had all this hardware,” said McMahon. “Designing something that won’t effect anyone else would be a lot tougher. I’d need just the right type of materials to work with; stuff that’s tough to come by.”
“Like what?” asked Lau.
“Well...”
A few minutes later, Simmons and Lau left the police station. “Thank God that went well,” said Simmons. “Lau, I haven’t seen you in years. Not since I left San Francisco to attend college out here. How’s your mother doing?”
“She’s fine,” replied Lau. “But now she’s trying to get me and Faye to move to California. Now that she finally has the granddaughter that she always wanted, she wants to see her all the time.”
“Well, I have to get back and report all this to the DA,” said Simmons. “It sure was great seeing you again though.”
“Mike, I can’t thank you enough for helping us out like this,” said Lau. “Without your help, there would have been no chance of ending this at all.”
The two shook hands and parted. Lau headed back to the Swordfish which was parked nearby. He activated the communicator. “Jet? It went over just fine. We’re just about all set.”
Vera was sitting at a computer terminal in the library of a local community college. She hung out there quite frequently. She was a pretty good hacker herself and often hacked into other websites. She always knew how to hack into the school’s mainframe when she was done to erase all traces of her activity. Some of her favorite online destinations were local news, local law enforcement, court reports, and of course, the solar system bounty database. This was how she hunted for her victims. The bounty hunter database always had specific details about violent criminals. She could always tell who had victimized women in the area.
Just as she was about to leave, a new case popped up on the federal court website. A serial killer was being brought to federal court in New York to answer charges for murder. Upon a closer look, she saw that this particular killer had a thing for sneaking into college dorms at night and killing coeds. He had been granted a change of venue and was on his way to New York now. Vera’s green eyes burned with rage. She couldn’t wait to slaughter this little slug.
What Vera didn’t realize was that this serial killer she was drooling over was a figment of Faye’s imagination. Ed had hacked into the court site and placed what Faye had told her to put in. Ed also put in a program that would prevent the system administrators from being able to erase the faulty data for forty-eight hours.
“That’s perfect, Ed,” said Faye. “This will lure her away from any real criminals and put her right where we want her.”
“You think she’ll see this, Faye Faye?” asked Ed.
“Count on it,” replied Faye. “She had to have been getting her information from somewhere unless those nano machines made her psychic or something.”
Over on Staten Island, McMahon was hard at work in a research lab. Lau and two cops were keeping him under close supervision. “Is that stuff I gave you working?” asked Lau.
“I don’t know yet,” replied McMahon. “I need a replica of the nano machines to see for sure.”
Lau nodded to a man in a white lab coat. The man handed McMahon a closed glass vial. “This is a sample of the machines,” he said. “We reproduced every single one of them exactly right down to the last detail.”
“Great,” replied McMahon. “OK fellas, everyone cross your fingers. I’m going to test this stuff right now.” Everyone gathered around him eagerly. “Success! It works like a charm.”
“Thanks McMahon,” replied Lau. “If it weren’t for the fact that you’re a homicidal wacko, I’d buy you a steak dinner right now.”
The next day a motorcade of US Marshals drove through the Manhattan streets towards the Federal Courthouse. At least they appeared to be US Marshals. A van that was supposed to contain the prisoner was being driven by Lau. Other cars were being driven by Faye, Matthew, Bob, and Jet. A real squad car with two real cops followed the motorcade. All Lau needed to do to enlist their help was to offer them a chance to help nail a cop killer. Ed flew around overhead in the Falcon. She was trying to stay out of sight but was watching the skies for any sign of Vera. Everyone hoped she would show up before they actually reached the courthouse or they would have to drop the act and go home. All of the sudden...
“Ed sees her! She’s coming!”
“Where is she?” yelled Lau into the radio. He was about to get an answer to that one. All of the sudden, a green blast of energy struck the street in front of him. A piece of pavement flew through the windshield, missing him by inches.
Everyone followed the plan precisely. Lau bailed out of the van right away. The cops as well as Bob, Jet, Matthew, and Faye all drove off quickly in different directions.
Another energy bolt came from the sky and struck the van which was continuing down the street without a driver. It exploded. Lau looked up and saw Vera. He aimed his Glock and fired so as to get her attention. He wanted her to stay and fight. If she left, all was lost. Luckily, Vera took the bait.
Lau’s bullet hit her shield. It seemed to her that the bullet shattered upon impact. That was odd because normally a bullet would be stopped and then drop to the ground. She landed in front of Lau and glared at him angrily. “You again?”
“Yeah, me again,” he replied with a smirk.
“This was a set-up, wasn’t it? You’re not a Marshall.”
Lau grinned. “My, you’re perceptive.” He immediately opened fire on her firing round after round continuously. Each one hit the shield and shattered.
Vera grinned triumphantly. “Well that was pointless. I hope you don’t feel too stupid.”
Lau responded by firing one more bullet. This one hit her right in the arm. She grabbed her arm and groaned. “What? How...how did you do that?” She tried to create an energy bolt only to see it fizzle out before taking shape. “What have you done to me?!”
Lau grinned. “It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the same nano machines that created your force field also created your energy bolts. They were so similar in appearance that it was hard to miss. Those bullets were loaded with a virus that was meant to disable those nano machines that made the shield. As the bullets shattered on the shield, you breathed the virus in.”
“That’s impossible!”
“Not really,” replied Lau. “The virus was made with a very special ingredient: a sample of my blood. Thanks to my wife, ever since my wedding night my blood has been filled with a protein substance that can counteract nano machines. Oh, and your flight ability is gone too.” Lau reloaded his gun. “Now why don’t you be a nice little psycho and put your hands up? Your bounty is up to one hundred fifty million and I’d like to collect it as soon as possible.”
Vera may have lost some of her supernatural abilities but her enhanced speed and strength were alive and well. She immediately kicked the gun out of Lau’s hand before he could even pull the trigger. He took up an aikido stance and tried to fight her. He charged at her several times but none of his blows connected. It was as pitiful as that time Spike tried to fight Applederry.
Vera grinned and started smacking him around. She wasn’t hitting him too hard. The point here was to antagonize him. Killing him could come later. “You just couldn’t mind your own damn business could you?” she growled. “I was doing this city, this state, this planet and the general human population a favor by eliminating those freaks.”
Lau wiped some blood off his face. “I know what happened to you,” he said. “No matter how many people you kill it will never ever affect the guy that violated you. He’s already dead.”
“SHUT UP!” she yelled angrily as she kicked him in the gut. “You men are all carnivores. All you see when you look around you are opportunities for pleasure and opportunities for letting out some aggression. Women are all either sex objects or punching bags to you. OR BOTH!”
Lau struggled to breathe. That kick had knocked the wind out of him. He tried to sweep her legs but she jumped over his kick and back-handed him. He reached up and grabbed her face with his metal hand before she could react. He grabbed hard and threw her to the curb.
The second she was down he grabbed his gun off the pavement. He fired at her but she was even better at dodging bullets than Vicious. She leapt behind a parked car and produced two guns of her own. Lau dived behind another car on the other side of the street. All of the sudden, machine gun fire could be heard from above. It was Ed. “Ed, get out of here!” screamed Lau into his radio. The Falcon flew in a circle overhead as Ed continued raining down gunfire onto Vera.
Vera angrily fired back. She missed and Ed retaliated by firing a small rocket. Vera dodged it and the car she had been ducking behind exploded. Vera raced down the street looking for cover. She fired nearly continuously at Lau as she did so. “Ed, now’s you chance to escape,” yelled Lau into his radio. “She’s distracted. Get out of here!”
This time Ed obeyed. Lau reloaded again and went after Vera. She ran right into traffic. She wasted no time in opening an unlocked car door and tossing the driver out. Lau raced up made a flying leap onto the roof that would have rivaled any Olympic track star. Vera took off. She hadn’t heard him land on the roof. Just then the driver side window was broken and Lau fired a shot. He couldn’t see where he was shooting so he missed. Vera fired a couple of shots through the roof. She too missed but Lau realized she wouldn’t miss for long. He jumped off the roof and landed in a pile of garbage bags by the curb. Vera rear-ended the car in front of her. The driver got out angrily. “Hey, what’s the big idea?!” he yelled. Vera quickly shot out his windows in reply. “Never mind!” he replied in terror. “I have insurance.”
Vera apparently decided to stop running and face Lau. He had to find another parked car to duck behind as she opened fire on him again. He shot back but missed every time. The traffic on the street cleared out real quick.
Just then, the two of them simultaneously ran out of ammo. Vera threw down her guns. Lau dropped his own and resumed his aikido stance. Vera grinned. “You bore me. Let’s end this.” She produced a machete and slowly advanced upon Lau. “I don’t care how good you are. I’m way too fast for you. No way are you not about to get sliced up.”
When she was only a couple feet away, Lau pulled a capped pen out of his pocket. “What’s this?” asked Vera. “You want to write your will or something?”
“The pen is mightier than the sword,” replied Lau.
BANG!
It wasn’t a pen. It was a small device that was capable of firing one single bullet. Lau had put the cap of a pen over the bullet to conceal it. Vera could only dodge a bullet if she had some indication it was coming ahead of time. The shot caught her completely off guard and hit her in the chest. She fell to the sidewalk.
She looked up at Lau. For the first time in a long time that sick hateful look was gone from her face. “It’s alright,” she said weakly. “I never belonged in this world anyway. I couldn’t be a real human being anymore. You know what I mean?”
Lau nodded. “Yeah, I know,” he said quietly. Vera closed her eyes and breathed her last. Dozens of squad cars showed up from all directions. Lau sat down on the sidewalk and stared off into space.
About a week later it was business as usual at MFR. Faye angrily punched the air conditioner. “Are we ever going to get this thing fixed?” she asked angrily.
“The air conditioner people have canceled our appointment several times,” replied Jet. “It may have something to do with the fact that you threatened them over the phone.”
Lau sat at his desk deep in thought. Faye came over and rubbed his back. “You OK?”
Lau nodded. “You know what?” he said. “I’m sick of not having air conditioning too. Let’s just go out and buy a new unit.”
Ed and Matthew were sitting on the floor nearby watching Julia tug on Ein’s ears. Ein was very gentle and patient around children so he gave no objection but gave Ed a look as if to say “Make her stop! Please!”
Ed picked up Julia. “OK, no more tugging on the doggie’s ears,” she said.
“Ed, Lau and I are going out to look for a new air conditioner,” said Faye. “Keep an eye on the baby, OK?”
Ed nodded as she watched Lau and Faye leave hand-in-hand. She sighed. “Ed loves watching those two. It’s so romantic.”
She was holding Julia with one hand. Matthew came over and took her other hand in his. She smiled at him and kissed him. “You’re not so bad either,” she said with a grin.
“OK you two, break it up,” growled Jet. “Matthew, don’t you have a burglar to go catch?”
“Well I don’t have any back up,” he replied. “Would it be OK if I brought Ed along?”
Ed gave Jet a pleading look. Jet sighed. “Oh alright. But Ed, if you don’t come back alive I’ll kill you.”
Ed came over and kissed him on the cheek. “Ed will be careful papa. I promise.” She handed Julia over to Jet. “In the meantime you watch the baby.”
She and Matthew headed out towards Matthew’s car leaving Ed, Ein, and Julia all alone. Jet looked at Ein and then walked over to the window. He put a HELP WANTED sign up. Then he turned back to Julia. He picked her up and looked right into her eyes. “Little girl, when you get older and start giving your father gray hairs like my kid does to me, I am going to be there to enjoy every single minute of it.”
Julia just grinned and grabbed Jet’s beard.
ARE YOU A REAL PERSON?
(c) 2004 Joseph Kerner jak981125catholic.org
Disclaimer: I did not create Cowboy Bebop. I wish I had, but I didn't. This is just fanfiction.
Jet showed up at the police station where Ed and Matthew had taken McMahon. “You two had better have a damn good explanation for this!” he said angrily.
“There was no time to wait for back-up,” explained Matthew.
“And so you risked my daughter’s life because twenty million wulongs might get away?” asked Jet angrily. “I thought you loved her. You sure aren’t acting like it.”
“It wasn’t about the money, papa,” said Ed. “Matthew had an idea.” She whispered something in Jet’s ear.
“Things are getting crucial,” said Matthew. “I figured it might be the only way to put a stop to this.”
“I’ll admit, that is pretty clever,” replied Jet. “But you should have at least called for back-up and if he tried to leave before we showed up, then and only then should you have gone ahead and did what you did.”
“Sorry sir,” replied Matthew. “I hadn’t thought of that. But Ed was magnificent out there. You should have seen her.”
“I’m glad I didn’t,” replied Jet. “I would have been terrified. Come on Ed, let’s go home.” The two of them left. A policeman approached Matthew and gave him his bounty. He barely noticed. He was too busy watching Ed leave.
Back at their apartment, Ed was pleading her case to Jet. “Ed can do this. Ed caught that guy, didn’t she?”
“Beginner’s luck,” said Jet angrily.
“And there was the guy in the park, and there was that fake doctor, and there was one more you don’t know about.”
“When was that?” asked Jet.
“When Ed was thirteen she caught a mushroom dealer,” she replied. “Ed is a lot bigger and tougher now. Why won’t you give Ed a chance?”
“Ed, take a look at my face,” said Jet. “You ever notice how messed up it is near this eye? That didn’t come from my police work, it came from a bounty head. In the time I’ve been doing this line of work I’ve been stabbed twice, shot three times, and pushed out of a third story window. And I’m a lot bigger than you are. Now look, this is the life I chose for myself and I can live with it. But I wanted something better for you. Something safer.”
“You mean something boring,” she replied. “What did you want Edward to do? Go have a nine to five white collar job in some office where I’d waste my life in boredom? That’s just not Edward. Edward has always been different than everyone else. You know that better than anyone. When Edward caught that guy it just felt so right.”
Jet was silent. Ed decided she had said enough and went off to bed.
The next morning, Lau and a young man in a three-piece suit entered the police station where Ed and Matthew had brought McMahon. They spoke to the desk sergeant and were led to a small room with a table and some chairs and nothing else. “We’ll bring him right up,” said the sergeant.
Within a few minutes, McMahon was brought in and sat down across from them. “What’s this all about?” he asked. “Who are you two?”
“I’m Assistant District Attorney Michael Simmons,” replied the man in the suit. “This fellow here is Lau Xiang, a representative of the fugitive recovery firm that caught you last night.”
“Yeah? Well I have nothing to say to you two without a lawyer.”
“So call your lawyer,” replied Simmons. “I think he’d be quite interested in hearing the offer we have for you.”
“What kind of offer?” asked McMahon.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” replied Lau. “We can’t tell you that now. You lawyered up, remember? We can’t really say anything to you now. Unless of course...”
“Alright, I get it,” replied McMahon. “Forget the lawyer. Now what do you two want? Or better yet, what are you guys willing to do for me?”
“You know full well we have an open and shut case against you,” replied Simmons. “We could put you away for a very long time. However, if you do a little something for us, I can see to it that you get lifetime probation. I can only do that because luckily, none of your victims died.”
“I’m liking this,” replied McMahon. “But what exactly did you have in mind when you said you wanted me to do a little something? You don’t want me to rat someone out do you? Because if you do, I know people who scare me a lot more than Attica.”
“It’s nothing like that,” replied Lau.
“This is going to sound like an odd request,” said Simmons. “The fact of the matter is we would like you to design a very specific virus for us.”
“This is a joke, right?” replied McMahon.”
“No, this is a last resort,” replied Lau.
“Mr. McMahon, I can assure you, we are quite serious,” said Simmons. “We believe that a certain type of virus may be the only way of stopping someone who has posed a grave danger to the people of this city. The DA reluctantly agreed with me that stopping this public menace is a bigger priority than locking you up.”
“What kind of virus do you want me to make?” asked McMahon.
Lau handed him all of the information they had acquired on Mars along with Doc’s notes. “Some recreational reading for you,” he said. “Find something that could counteract that stuff.”
“You will also have to sign a confidentiality agreement,” said Simmons. “And one more thing, whatever you make can’t hurt anyone else. If that’s not possible, the DA won’t approve the deal.”
“It would be easy to infect and disable someone who had all this hardware,” said McMahon. “Designing something that won’t effect anyone else would be a lot tougher. I’d need just the right type of materials to work with; stuff that’s tough to come by.”
“Like what?” asked Lau.
“Well...”
A few minutes later, Simmons and Lau left the police station. “Thank God that went well,” said Simmons. “Lau, I haven’t seen you in years. Not since I left San Francisco to attend college out here. How’s your mother doing?”
“She’s fine,” replied Lau. “But now she’s trying to get me and Faye to move to California. Now that she finally has the granddaughter that she always wanted, she wants to see her all the time.”
“Well, I have to get back and report all this to the DA,” said Simmons. “It sure was great seeing you again though.”
“Mike, I can’t thank you enough for helping us out like this,” said Lau. “Without your help, there would have been no chance of ending this at all.”
The two shook hands and parted. Lau headed back to the Swordfish which was parked nearby. He activated the communicator. “Jet? It went over just fine. We’re just about all set.”
Vera was sitting at a computer terminal in the library of a local community college. She hung out there quite frequently. She was a pretty good hacker herself and often hacked into other websites. She always knew how to hack into the school’s mainframe when she was done to erase all traces of her activity. Some of her favorite online destinations were local news, local law enforcement, court reports, and of course, the solar system bounty database. This was how she hunted for her victims. The bounty hunter database always had specific details about violent criminals. She could always tell who had victimized women in the area.
Just as she was about to leave, a new case popped up on the federal court website. A serial killer was being brought to federal court in New York to answer charges for murder. Upon a closer look, she saw that this particular killer had a thing for sneaking into college dorms at night and killing coeds. He had been granted a change of venue and was on his way to New York now. Vera’s green eyes burned with rage. She couldn’t wait to slaughter this little slug.
What Vera didn’t realize was that this serial killer she was drooling over was a figment of Faye’s imagination. Ed had hacked into the court site and placed what Faye had told her to put in. Ed also put in a program that would prevent the system administrators from being able to erase the faulty data for forty-eight hours.
“That’s perfect, Ed,” said Faye. “This will lure her away from any real criminals and put her right where we want her.”
“You think she’ll see this, Faye Faye?” asked Ed.
“Count on it,” replied Faye. “She had to have been getting her information from somewhere unless those nano machines made her psychic or something.”
Over on Staten Island, McMahon was hard at work in a research lab. Lau and two cops were keeping him under close supervision. “Is that stuff I gave you working?” asked Lau.
“I don’t know yet,” replied McMahon. “I need a replica of the nano machines to see for sure.”
Lau nodded to a man in a white lab coat. The man handed McMahon a closed glass vial. “This is a sample of the machines,” he said. “We reproduced every single one of them exactly right down to the last detail.”
“Great,” replied McMahon. “OK fellas, everyone cross your fingers. I’m going to test this stuff right now.” Everyone gathered around him eagerly. “Success! It works like a charm.”
“Thanks McMahon,” replied Lau. “If it weren’t for the fact that you’re a homicidal wacko, I’d buy you a steak dinner right now.”
The next day a motorcade of US Marshals drove through the Manhattan streets towards the Federal Courthouse. At least they appeared to be US Marshals. A van that was supposed to contain the prisoner was being driven by Lau. Other cars were being driven by Faye, Matthew, Bob, and Jet. A real squad car with two real cops followed the motorcade. All Lau needed to do to enlist their help was to offer them a chance to help nail a cop killer. Ed flew around overhead in the Falcon. She was trying to stay out of sight but was watching the skies for any sign of Vera. Everyone hoped she would show up before they actually reached the courthouse or they would have to drop the act and go home. All of the sudden...
“Ed sees her! She’s coming!”
“Where is she?” yelled Lau into the radio. He was about to get an answer to that one. All of the sudden, a green blast of energy struck the street in front of him. A piece of pavement flew through the windshield, missing him by inches.
Everyone followed the plan precisely. Lau bailed out of the van right away. The cops as well as Bob, Jet, Matthew, and Faye all drove off quickly in different directions.
Another energy bolt came from the sky and struck the van which was continuing down the street without a driver. It exploded. Lau looked up and saw Vera. He aimed his Glock and fired so as to get her attention. He wanted her to stay and fight. If she left, all was lost. Luckily, Vera took the bait.
Lau’s bullet hit her shield. It seemed to her that the bullet shattered upon impact. That was odd because normally a bullet would be stopped and then drop to the ground. She landed in front of Lau and glared at him angrily. “You again?”
“Yeah, me again,” he replied with a smirk.
“This was a set-up, wasn’t it? You’re not a Marshall.”
Lau grinned. “My, you’re perceptive.” He immediately opened fire on her firing round after round continuously. Each one hit the shield and shattered.
Vera grinned triumphantly. “Well that was pointless. I hope you don’t feel too stupid.”
Lau responded by firing one more bullet. This one hit her right in the arm. She grabbed her arm and groaned. “What? How...how did you do that?” She tried to create an energy bolt only to see it fizzle out before taking shape. “What have you done to me?!”
Lau grinned. “It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the same nano machines that created your force field also created your energy bolts. They were so similar in appearance that it was hard to miss. Those bullets were loaded with a virus that was meant to disable those nano machines that made the shield. As the bullets shattered on the shield, you breathed the virus in.”
“That’s impossible!”
“Not really,” replied Lau. “The virus was made with a very special ingredient: a sample of my blood. Thanks to my wife, ever since my wedding night my blood has been filled with a protein substance that can counteract nano machines. Oh, and your flight ability is gone too.” Lau reloaded his gun. “Now why don’t you be a nice little psycho and put your hands up? Your bounty is up to one hundred fifty million and I’d like to collect it as soon as possible.”
Vera may have lost some of her supernatural abilities but her enhanced speed and strength were alive and well. She immediately kicked the gun out of Lau’s hand before he could even pull the trigger. He took up an aikido stance and tried to fight her. He charged at her several times but none of his blows connected. It was as pitiful as that time Spike tried to fight Applederry.
Vera grinned and started smacking him around. She wasn’t hitting him too hard. The point here was to antagonize him. Killing him could come later. “You just couldn’t mind your own damn business could you?” she growled. “I was doing this city, this state, this planet and the general human population a favor by eliminating those freaks.”
Lau wiped some blood off his face. “I know what happened to you,” he said. “No matter how many people you kill it will never ever affect the guy that violated you. He’s already dead.”
“SHUT UP!” she yelled angrily as she kicked him in the gut. “You men are all carnivores. All you see when you look around you are opportunities for pleasure and opportunities for letting out some aggression. Women are all either sex objects or punching bags to you. OR BOTH!”
Lau struggled to breathe. That kick had knocked the wind out of him. He tried to sweep her legs but she jumped over his kick and back-handed him. He reached up and grabbed her face with his metal hand before she could react. He grabbed hard and threw her to the curb.
The second she was down he grabbed his gun off the pavement. He fired at her but she was even better at dodging bullets than Vicious. She leapt behind a parked car and produced two guns of her own. Lau dived behind another car on the other side of the street. All of the sudden, machine gun fire could be heard from above. It was Ed. “Ed, get out of here!” screamed Lau into his radio. The Falcon flew in a circle overhead as Ed continued raining down gunfire onto Vera.
Vera angrily fired back. She missed and Ed retaliated by firing a small rocket. Vera dodged it and the car she had been ducking behind exploded. Vera raced down the street looking for cover. She fired nearly continuously at Lau as she did so. “Ed, now’s you chance to escape,” yelled Lau into his radio. “She’s distracted. Get out of here!”
This time Ed obeyed. Lau reloaded again and went after Vera. She ran right into traffic. She wasted no time in opening an unlocked car door and tossing the driver out. Lau raced up made a flying leap onto the roof that would have rivaled any Olympic track star. Vera took off. She hadn’t heard him land on the roof. Just then the driver side window was broken and Lau fired a shot. He couldn’t see where he was shooting so he missed. Vera fired a couple of shots through the roof. She too missed but Lau realized she wouldn’t miss for long. He jumped off the roof and landed in a pile of garbage bags by the curb. Vera rear-ended the car in front of her. The driver got out angrily. “Hey, what’s the big idea?!” he yelled. Vera quickly shot out his windows in reply. “Never mind!” he replied in terror. “I have insurance.”
Vera apparently decided to stop running and face Lau. He had to find another parked car to duck behind as she opened fire on him again. He shot back but missed every time. The traffic on the street cleared out real quick.
Just then, the two of them simultaneously ran out of ammo. Vera threw down her guns. Lau dropped his own and resumed his aikido stance. Vera grinned. “You bore me. Let’s end this.” She produced a machete and slowly advanced upon Lau. “I don’t care how good you are. I’m way too fast for you. No way are you not about to get sliced up.”
When she was only a couple feet away, Lau pulled a capped pen out of his pocket. “What’s this?” asked Vera. “You want to write your will or something?”
“The pen is mightier than the sword,” replied Lau.
BANG!
It wasn’t a pen. It was a small device that was capable of firing one single bullet. Lau had put the cap of a pen over the bullet to conceal it. Vera could only dodge a bullet if she had some indication it was coming ahead of time. The shot caught her completely off guard and hit her in the chest. She fell to the sidewalk.
She looked up at Lau. For the first time in a long time that sick hateful look was gone from her face. “It’s alright,” she said weakly. “I never belonged in this world anyway. I couldn’t be a real human being anymore. You know what I mean?”
Lau nodded. “Yeah, I know,” he said quietly. Vera closed her eyes and breathed her last. Dozens of squad cars showed up from all directions. Lau sat down on the sidewalk and stared off into space.
About a week later it was business as usual at MFR. Faye angrily punched the air conditioner. “Are we ever going to get this thing fixed?” she asked angrily.
“The air conditioner people have canceled our appointment several times,” replied Jet. “It may have something to do with the fact that you threatened them over the phone.”
Lau sat at his desk deep in thought. Faye came over and rubbed his back. “You OK?”
Lau nodded. “You know what?” he said. “I’m sick of not having air conditioning too. Let’s just go out and buy a new unit.”
Ed and Matthew were sitting on the floor nearby watching Julia tug on Ein’s ears. Ein was very gentle and patient around children so he gave no objection but gave Ed a look as if to say “Make her stop! Please!”
Ed picked up Julia. “OK, no more tugging on the doggie’s ears,” she said.
“Ed, Lau and I are going out to look for a new air conditioner,” said Faye. “Keep an eye on the baby, OK?”
Ed nodded as she watched Lau and Faye leave hand-in-hand. She sighed. “Ed loves watching those two. It’s so romantic.”
She was holding Julia with one hand. Matthew came over and took her other hand in his. She smiled at him and kissed him. “You’re not so bad either,” she said with a grin.
“OK you two, break it up,” growled Jet. “Matthew, don’t you have a burglar to go catch?”
“Well I don’t have any back up,” he replied. “Would it be OK if I brought Ed along?”
Ed gave Jet a pleading look. Jet sighed. “Oh alright. But Ed, if you don’t come back alive I’ll kill you.”
Ed came over and kissed him on the cheek. “Ed will be careful papa. I promise.” She handed Julia over to Jet. “In the meantime you watch the baby.”
She and Matthew headed out towards Matthew’s car leaving Ed, Ein, and Julia all alone. Jet looked at Ein and then walked over to the window. He put a HELP WANTED sign up. Then he turned back to Julia. He picked her up and looked right into her eyes. “Little girl, when you get older and start giving your father gray hairs like my kid does to me, I am going to be there to enjoy every single minute of it.”
Julia just grinned and grabbed Jet’s beard.
ARE YOU A REAL PERSON?
(c) 2004 Joseph Kerner jak981125catholic.org
Disclaimer: I did not create Cowboy Bebop. I wish I had, but I didn't. This is just fanfiction.