Thanks Silver Goddess1! Here's your more! RySenkari, I'm glad you liked when they meditated, I liked it too. Be in suspense no more! My first review from Bec126, I'm happy you liked it, thanks! My first review also from Acacia Jules, thank you! No one ever really said anything like that about the whole comb thing! @_@ I know what you're talking about with hair growing back slowly. Thanks so much! ^__^

School starts tomorrow. Lucky me. Hopefully my work ethic will return and chapters wont have big gaps between 'em! Have a good rest of summer everyone! Check chapter 29 if you reviewed, the chapter has been replaced and you guys are thanked.


Disclaimer: I do not own Cowboy Bebop

Thoughts are in italics


Pizza Flyer


The hard impact against the wall caused Faye's arm to come loose from Spike's and she madly flailed and pushed back off the wall and clung to his waist again. "Faye clam down."

She frowned and inwardly sad, and let go of him entirely and watched him speed off while she floated forward some on her own. Spike looked back at her. Maybe it was just her but he had sounded more than a bit annoyed that she clung to him that way. That's why she had let go. The handle came racing back her way and without thinking she reached and grabbed it. It wasn't the best idea. She was pulled sharply back and then forward from the sharp change of directions.

When she made it to the cockpit someone was talking loudly through some static, "Alpha charlie tango, Ammador, do you copy? This is Lennon, do you copy Ammador?" When 'Lennon' received only static, he swore. "Damn cheap shit…we're part of a syndicate, you think they could get decent equipment!" Spike growled. He didn't want to bring trouble to the Bebop. Someone would get hurt.

"Sorry, sir. I was out of range while scouting." answered Ammador.

"Damn it Ammador let me know next time!"

"Yes sir."

"Is Hunter and his squad here yet?"

"Affirmative, sir. They are just coming in range."

"Hey, Lennon. Sorry we're late. Hunter Squadron reporting in."

"Good," said Lennon. "We've just made the first attack. I have Kalata on the ship and Ammador and Shai on aerials. Kalata's taken out the non-vital systems. Who have you got for us to work with?"

"Jakuta, Veritas, and Mollistar, sir!"

"Good. We'll start attacking with the light arms. See if we can draw Spiegel out."

"Sir!" the other seven men responded enthusiastically. There were two small rumbles that shook the ship.

No one had said a word yet. Faye had been staring at Spike's back and Jet's eyes were locked on the receiver. Ed having the time of her life in zero gravity with Ein was just background noise. Spike's back was so tense. His hands were balled into fists. The flashlight positioned over the radio shone off Jet's head oddly.

The syndicate. Spike's syndicate. She always thought of it as his. The last times she had become involved with the syndicate, however unintentionally, were frightening enough. But it was Spike's syndicate and he would keep them safe, her safe. Like the first time. She moved forward and wrapped her hands around one of his clenched fists. She felt safer even if he was angry.

He glanced down at the top of Faye's head, her helmet under one arm. Damn it. I knew this would happen. I wont be their leader. They wont get revenge. Whatever they want…they're not getting it. They're attacking where I live. Draw me out. Draw me out? No one draws me out. I come out, and annihilate.

It was like, well, getting a new life. No matter how much you liked the old one and it was a deep set habit, bad or good, when you got the new life, of course you still wanted the old one to be important, still wanted it to matter. But no matter what you did, your priorities and what you cared about slowly changed. And your old life and how you were then becomes less important.

Or like disliking pepperoni all your life, and then, one day for fun you take a bite of some pepperoni pizza, and then you just…don't mind it. It tastes good. Then you have to remember that you DO like pepperoni now, and to stop ordering just cheese pizza. So, slowly you forget about liking just cheese pizza, and move on to pepperoni. You still like cheese…it's just not as good anymore.

That's what Spike had been going through lately. He was starting to like pepperoni pizza. It was confusing the hell out of him, but he didn't really mind, this new type of pizza tasted good.

And these guys from the cheese were beating up on his pepperoni, and well, we just can't have that.

He pushed off the floor, saying, "Jet, stay here and keep me informed on their moves. Faye I want you to take your gun and get out on the side of the ship and deal with Kalata. Be careful. I'll keep the rest off the ship and cover you Faye, if you need it."

"B-but," she was startled, he had his game face on so to speak. The dead set serious face that could make the faint of heart wet their pants. "Don't you want me to help you?"

"No. I know you can handle Kalata if you're careful. When you finish him, if there's any fighters left then you can launch and help me."

"What can we do?" Asked Ed as she floated, spinning in the air holding Ein.

"You can help Jet. Try and hack their ships," With that he pushed off again and floated out again. Faye followed close behind him, holding onto the handle.

They whizzed down the hall and when they reached common room he let go and the coasted smoothly across the room where he flipped forward to push off the wall, Faye made a small noise grabbed his back and pulled her knees up to her chest. He pushed them towards the hatch that their rooms were off of. He rolled it open and used it to push off of and down the hall. He stopped at Faye's room. She let go and pulled herself in turning on a light.

Her lipstick and dirty cloths and cigarette butts floated about. She looked around and grabbed her gun and some ammo floating over the bed. She turned and saw Spike watching her. Suddenly she felt sleepy. Like she hadn't slept in days. She wanted to lay down and let Spike take care of it. She floated out to him and they went out to the deck and sealed the door. Faye engaged her boots and watched Spike's ship roll out, the wings unfold, and blast off.


Spike patched over their radio units and she heard Spike responding to something Jet told him. He zoomed out of sight around one side of the Bebop and off into space. She made her way slowly to the opening and carefully stepped onto the side of Bebop. He senses whirled until she made sure to think of the side as down and space as up. Then she continued on. "Uh, Spike where is this guy?"

She heard him grunt as his ship spiraled by and cornered straight up, avoiding a line of shots, "Just keep going straight and then climb over the rotating tunnel." She nodded to herself.

He'd already taken out two ships the ones he assumed were Hunter and Jakuta. Probably rogue remnants of the old guard that were loyal to the Vans, and wanted to blow off some steam. He had no idea who was in charge now. Maybe they should try some pepperoni pizza. "Spike! The gray ship's going to aim for Faye! Warn her!" yelled Jet.

"Faye! Move now!"

"Wha?" she got the impression of a large gray ship and disengaged her boots and jumped away as hard as she could. The blast shook the ship and she thought that she could feel the heat through her suit. She grabbed on to a piece of metal sticking up from the ship and reengaged her boots.

"They know that you're going after Kalata so hurry! I'll hold them off."

"Got it," she responded and worked on her slow motion running skills. Its hard work running with magnets of your feet. She reached the outside of the rotating tunnel and looked up. Uncertainly she stepped on to its side. This was just the metal on the outside of the tunnel itself. It didn't rotate. She walked up and across the tunnel. When she hopped off she was sucked quickly down by her boots. She could see Kalata now. He was looking in her direction, with his gun ready. She walked carefully wide around him over the fins and behind him. When she looked about in space she saw Spike keeping the other fighters fully occupied. Two of them converged on his ship which angled sharply down and the other two ships collided exploding. She smirked. Syndicate goonies could be pretty stupid. She was surprised they didn't see that maneuver coming miles away.

She aimed her gun at Kalata's back and only hesitated for a second as the bright blue flash of Spike's cannon threw everything into sharp relief. Kalata saw her shadow and was turning to shoot as she shot him in the back. In the head would have been too messy. Faye didn't look at his face and she fiddled with his belt and his boots before turning the magnet off and pushing him gently away from the ship.

She decided she should at least close the panel that Kalata had opened, because she didn't know how to fix what he had done. It was just a mess of wires and switch boards in there. Jet'll probably fix it later.

"Spike. I got him."

"Good, get your ass out here. These guys just don't just don't wanna die."

As she was making her way back to the hangar her belt was shot off and she floated unsteadily in space. A foreign glove wrapped itself around her left arm and pulled her close. An olive, Asian face leered at her from in the helmet. She was frozen between struggling to get away or hanging on to the person. She remembered her gun and tried to bring it up to shoot, but the man punched her in the stomach. She let go of her gun as she arced over his head and he let her momentum slam her into the ship.

Spike had taken out the last ship he had assumed was Lennon. He was flying back around wondering where Faye was when he saw the gray ship stopped close to the Bebop. Empty.

Damn it! I should have noticed! He flew slowly around the other side of the hangar and saw Faye slam cruelly into the ship. He wanted to shoot, but he'd most likely hit Faye as well.

"Faye do something! Don't worry I'll be there."

"Always giving orders…" she muttered.

The man touched something on the side of his helmet as they spoke and aimed Faye's own gun at her, one hand wrapped around his wrist. "Ahh, comforting words of reassurance," he sneered condescendingly. She struggled to get away. Bracing herself she swung around hard, her foot coming up and catching him under his chin.

He stumbled back a bit, he pressed the gun to her helmet and said, "I was going to shoot you, but I'd rather throw you away like the trash you are."

Her dignity wounded, she began to yell an angry retort when he whipped her around by her wrist. Making her dizzy. Suddenly there was no fist clamped around her wrist. And the Bebop was speeding away. Suddenly she recalled a memory of a video on space junk from school. It said that since space was frictionless, things could just go and go and go. Little tiny nuts and bolts made big dents in satellites and stuff, just from their speed. They just kept going until they hit something. "Spike!" she screamed.

He had been pulling to the hangar fully wanting to beat the shit out of that guy. Put some old fashioned woop-ass and relieve some stress, when he heard Faye scream his name. She called him again, "Spike!"

"What?" he said worriedly.

Her voice was panicked, "Spike, he threw me!"

"I'll come get you. Hang on while I get this guy." There was a small beeping sound. They were going out of range.

Then in a flat voice she said, "Fuck. I didn't check the air tanks."




NFA: Well there's that. This chapter gave me a bit of trouble, but I hope you liked it. Tune in next time for the exciting conclusion! ^__^ PLEASE REVIEW!