"Losing Much,Gaining little"

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Bebop crew, nor rights to their crusades.

Claimer: Jasmine,Tomatchi, Shang and especially Korey all belong to me.

"Wow." the blue-haired boy breathed, gazing at the lanky girl directly in front of him. The street lights were slowly flickering on outside, and since there was next to no amount of lighting in the building as it was, they were really all there was to see by. Yet even so, those two almost gold eyes seemed to glow with a brilliance all their own, and for a split second Korey Chen-li forgot his deathly peril and stood entranced by them, out of breathe, and heart racing.

"What...what are you doing here, they're coming!" That's all he could think to say , he didn't know who this strangely dressed girl was, or why she was in this horrible place so late at night, and even though the dominant coward in him told him to run, a small curiosity had bloomed in that moment, just inside the recesses of his mind, that told him to find out why she stood before him. And to even goes as far as to find out what he could do about it.

Edward, stared backed curiously, the boy was roughly the same height as her, and most likely near the same age judging by his looks, but he was physically tired, with haggard eyes hidden behind strange bright red lenses. That moment was the longest one in Ed's short life that she had gone without saying a word. She knew who this was, and after all the scenarios that played through her mind, after all the hopes of her first great adventure, she had never imagined that her quarry would come to her so easily.

Edward had found the bounty. Edward had won.

"Yay!" she yelled loudly, squealing with delight, the boy winced at the amplitude of sound that emitted from her mouth, and seemed to cower back, as if scared. But before he could pull to far away, she had his hand clenched in hers and was pulling him with all her strength.

"Come on Korey-person, we have to find Spike-Spike. We came looking for you." Edward, chirped, trying to pull her new ward toward the door.

Korey was starting to panic at this point, who would come and willingly look for him? And once more, if they knew he was here, what kind of crooks would he have to deal with.

But how many crime rings had cute red-headed weird girls working for them?

On the other hand, how many crime rings had a dorky short blue-haired hacker on their pay roll.

Touché.

"Let go of me!" he hissed, trying to pull away, the girl couldn't ground herself, but she had one hell of a grip on her.

"But Korey, you're supposed to come with the cowboys, we came to get you!" Edward laughed, as if this whole scenario were the most obvious thing in the world.

"What!" the boy yelped. "You're bounty hunters, I can't go with you, I'll end up in prison!"

"No No No" hummed the strange girl, "Spike-person knows you're good, he can help."

"Spike….wait, as in Spike Spiegel!" the boy wailed, "I can't go with him, he the worst one of all, let go of me!" he slammed himself against Edward's shoulder as hard as he could with his already bruised body as the pair was halfway to the double doors Edward had originally come in through.

In surprise, the girl dropped her guard long enough for the boy to take off, and Korey launched himself not for the main entrance, but for the stairs that led to the underground, he knew his way around that nocturnal world better than the one that dwelled in plain site. His sweaty hand grasped the door knob, and before he used his own waning strength to pull it open, someone else's weight met him from the other side.

A large hand reached from around the door and grabbed the front of the boys shirt with such force that he was knocked from his feet.

"Going somewhere my pet," a hot rash voice hacked the words into his face.

"Shang" Korey croaked.

Jasmine pushed out from behind him, desperately trying to rearrange her hair.

"You idiot, how many bloody stairs to you have to run down before for you realize you gone past the lobby, next time I'd just soon shoot you in the skull as waste my time stopping you!"

"Big Man says Edward" the girl whispered looking up.

"Whose the other brat?" Shang arrogantly questioned, "Is she a little friend of yours? Maybe a rescuer? Well how did this come about my pet?"

Korey coughed up a bit before answering, "she's nothing in this, just forget about her. I don't even know her name!"

Ed perked up, "Yes you Korey-chan, I'm Edward, and I have all the special stuff on you, we're gonna take from Tomatchi! Spike-person said so-

"YOU IDIOT! THEY'LL KILL YOU!" Korey roared, trying to stand under the weight of Shang's arm.

"My my my, if it isn't a little girl who knows to much." Jasmine drawled and she moved from behind Shang's large frame. "We can't have that now can we?"

"No we can't," Shang agreed.

"We'd better dispose of this nuisance then shan't we?" Jasmine inferred, reaching for her gun. She had it raised and pointed at Edwards head, right between the eyes, before Korey could even struggle forward. As her thumb moved to cock the trigger back, another click was heard, that echoed through the dark.

"I'd just drop the weapon all together Mrs. Velincio, I wouldn't want to blow out those sexy brains for the sake of my comrade." A cool voice said from the doorway.

"Spike-Spike!" Ed yelled, jumping up.

"Don't move girly," Shang growled, "Another step and I'll feel ya's with lead, the two of ya's."

Edward stopped her mad dash, and Korey gulped.

Jasmine eyed the drenched Mr. Spiegel as he calmly drew a cigarette from his pocket and lit it with his left hand. His right hand was still holding the gun and his eyes never left the four people in front of him through the whole movement. She smiled as she lowered the weapon aimed at Ed.

"See Ed, I told you she liked me," Spike laughed.

Ed's eye were growing wider and wider with fear. "Be careful Spike-Spike, she's bad" Ed breathed.

Jasmine laughed at this. Her light and delicate manner starting to cover up her psychotic behavioral killing tendencies.

"So you ARE a cowboy, I assumed as much. Tell me, Spike Spiegel, do you always send young children ahead to pave the way before you come strolling in?"

Spike shrugged, "Nah, that was a one time thing."

"How extraordinarily interesting," Jasmine laughed again. She delicately stepped back and grounded herself by spreading her feet apart. She then finally pulled the hammer back and rested it at her side, ready to pull up and barrage anyone with bullets at a moment's notice.

"No need to get so defenses, there doesn't even have to be trouble here if you just give me what I want." Spike growled. "Hand over the kids, I won't even need you as of yet, your heads are worthless."

"That ain't gonna happen anytime soon." Shang retorted. "This here is boss Tomatchi;s property, and his little friend would only know him through do 'net, for all we's knows she's got more skills than da runt."

"I'll give you to the count of 3," Spike said.

"1"

Jasmine moved toward Edward.

"2"

Shang dropped Korey and pulled out two of his own guns.

"3"

Korey hit the deck, rolling only fast enough to avoid losing his head as Shang and Spike opened fire on each other. Jasmine leapt toward Ed and tackled the lanky girl to the ground, somehow managing to wrap on strong toned arm around the girl's neck as she pulled her toward the door to the underground. Her other arm remained up, gun ready, daring Spike to try for a rescue. No matter how much Ed struggled, the grip on her neck was only tightened.

With the heat Shang was packing, Spike had to haul ass to avoid being shot, his long legs carried him into a running dive behind the large oak secretary's desk. Splinters of wood shattered into his clothes and hair from bullets that were supposed to be embedded in him. He had no visual of the four people by the door and that worried him. He waited for the bullets on the other end to stop, as soon as they did and he heard the group ( there were only two actually moving, the other two were actually being dragged) running for the door that led to the subway, he shot out from his hiding place.

That brute could sure move down stairs. He was dragging two kids to boot. Jasmine tailed him to occasionally shoot at sike, but they made it look like nothing as they did this all at once. These two were used to cooperating despite their obvious differences and tastes.

And here Spike was without any backup whatsoever.

"Spike! Help Edward!" the girl wailed. He had never in his time on the Bebop heard that constant carefree voice in distress, and frankly it scared him.

After three flights of stairs, Shang burst through the doors that met the subway loading platforms. As soon as Jasmine was out he physically punched the metal door, dropping Korey for only a moment, the assault jammed the door through the frame, as to not let it open lightly for anyone else coming out. He grabbed the boy by the scruff of the neck again and tightned his grip on ed. He had one bulky arm wrapped aground her throat, not allowing her to use her arms at all.

"Damnit!" Spike swore when he got to the exit. The job Shang had done of stopping him was poor, but he was quite delayed in catching his quarry, not to mention his….partner.

He began to furiously kick the door, through the small wnidow in the center he could to the rail train getting closer to the platform.

"Hold on Ed!" he yelled through the steel.

He decided to take a different approach. Grabbing his gun hard, he unloaded an entire clip around the frame, hoping the hot bullets would do something more for him than just brute strength. With all his might he kicked again, and this time if flew open. By now the train was opening it's doors.

He ran toward them as fast as he could, Jasmine fired two shots before jumping inside after Shang and the day glow orange sign above the doors on the rail read "caution" as they slowly shut. Spike got there with enough room to fit two arms in, he reached inside, much to the awe and amazement of the riders. Shocked noises were heard from Jasmine and another women that had nothing to do with the fray.

Although, she may have just been scared at the entire happenings that took place before her eyes.

Spike poured all he had into the moment. With nothing to go on but fell, his hands swept though the air and grabbed the first small hand he came to. He pulled the child' body out with everything he had, right before the doors shut and the one he lost was ripped away with the passing of the Train, as it roared down the tunnel.

A/N: Ok, so obviousely it's been awhile, no I didn't abandon the story, I have just had no time, and for a while I didn't even have a computer. But now that have a little bit of both, I may get in a few updates. Just remeber, I have many projects going, I have an online comic in the making, I'm trying to build a website, I was just made drum Major, so yeah. Not a hell of a lot of free time. But I do enjoy writing, this just isn't something I'm entirely disciplined about. I mean, I'm sorry I can't give you weekly updates, but hey, life sucks sometimes.

On the other hand, Thank you so much for the reveiws and the support. I feel so lucky to have readers liek all of you people who not only leave a comment, but personally e-mail me to tell me to get off my lazy ass and update. Nice. (you can keep doing that, just be a little bit nice about it.) Thanks so much guys!