Session One: The Invisible Men

"Mr. Black," said one of the men sitting at the table. "Have a seat."

Jet Black hesitated, then sat down in a chair on the opposite side of the table. His dark uniform felt suddenly tight and uncomfortable. This was not a place he wanted to be-he'd already spent too much time in white rooms like this, a one-directional mirror along one wall so he could be observed.

"I'll be honest," he said. "I'm used to sitting on the other side, now."

Neither the man with a thinning head of brown hair nor the man balder than he was smiled. "We can see that," said the man with hair, opening a folder in front of him. "In the years since your release you've climbed through the ranks of the Beaumonde Police Department with remarkable speed." He paused. "It seems you've even turned down a promotion."

"Job would have been all paperwork, if I had," Jet grunted, looking down at the floor. "Takes too much as it is."

The bald man leaned forward. "You've also rabidly pursued corruption within the ranks. In fact, you've beaten out three different IA investigations, exposing the corrupt officers they had just started to investigate."

Jet looked up and smiled. "It's nice to do work that matters," he said. "Beaumonde ain't great, but the corruption hasn't set in yet."

"Ah, yes," the man with hair said. "We read your personal files on the ISSP."

Jet's smile vanished. "Those were private."

"Nothing you own is private, Mr. Black," said the man with hair. "Not even your life."

Jet's hands tightened into fists on his lap.

"But we can give it back to you," said the bald man.

Jet stared at him for a moment. "What?"

"We have completed our examination of your ship," said the man with hair. "We believe we can replicate the incident that brought you here. If you are so inclined, we can send you back."

Jet stared at them for a moment. "Send me..." He thought of it a moment-of devastated earth and the ISSP that had long since been crushed by corruption. Of a world broken and battered by the fall of Earth. But his world.

"And, if you'd prefer to stay here," the man with hair continued. "We are willing to return your ship, illegal military hardware included. We have even upgraded it to enable to better travel about our verse."

And there was nothing at all doubtful about that thought-regardless of where he was, to have the Bebop again, to be able to fly his ship...

"Generous of you," Jet said, keeping his face neutral. "What's the catch?"

"We require your services," the man with hair answered.

"You already have them," Jet said, pulling at the uniform he wore.

The bald man shook his head. "I'm afraid we need your skills in a...different area."

Jet stared between them for a moment, then laughed. "You have a bounty?"

"Yes," the bald man said.

"Then find someone else." Jet leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. "You've read the records. You know how bad we were."

"Trained in an environment of bounty hunters with a penchant for getting the job done even at the cost of the bounty," said the man with hair. "No, Mr. Black, given the failures we've had from other sources, I think you are the perfect man for the job. And you will, of course, receive your ship to make this easier."

Jet's breath caught in his throat. To get his ship back, all for the sake of a bounty...? But he knew these people, he'd been held by these people, surely there was a dark side to this, surely there was more to the story...

"I'd need my crew," he said.

"We'll give you what information we have," said the bald man. "But they have not been as...easy to keep track of, as you."

Naturally, they wouldn't.

"Alright," Jet said. "Tell me about the job."

The man with hair reached into the folder, pulled out a picture, and slid it across the table-a picture of a too-pale girl with stringy black hair and gloomy eyes that loomed out of the photo. It was only as he did this that Jet noticed the strangest thing about the man-the startling shade of blue the skin on his hands was. "Her name is River Tam," said the man with hair. "A very dangerous girl working with a group of career criminals aboard aboard the Firefly-class ship Serenity."