"ED IS HUNGRY!" I heard a sharp whisper to my left, and I growled at the freakishy talented red-head named Ed.

"Ed, shaddup!" I hissed. "Faye, you take the kitchen, I'll take the bedroom, Ed...Ed, you keep an eye out here."

The tall black haired woman sighed, tiptoing into the apartment. "Yanno, Spike, when we get out of here and back onto the ship, I'm going to kill you for dragging Ed along." She grumbled. I shrugged and snuck into the small apartment. The living room was tiny and full of computers and technological stuff that Ed would flip out over. I was glad that she was standing guard outside, I would have never been able to get her out without her making a fuss.

"Spike, what does the antidote look like?" Faye peered out from the connecting kitchen as I made my way to the bedroom.

"It's a little glass tube. The antidote is these two light purple pills, and the tube is a deep blue glass; it'd fit in your hand." I spoke, trying not to trip over the mounds of computer gaming magazines and boxes of wires and stuff. The bedroom connected onto the kitchen, and Faye gave me a nasty look as she picked up a smelly shirt that had made its way to the sink.

"I think I like this place, minus the computer crap." I muttered, flipping the light switch in the bedroom to find more computer stuff. I searched through the computer desk drawers, the dresser, and underneath the bed.

"Spike, I've got it!" Faye jumped into the bedroom, holding a blue glass tube with two purple pills inside. I smirked, following the tall woman into the living room. Ein, Ed's little dog, was barking like crazy outside the door, which had somehow been shut. A scream sounded from the hallway, and I pulled open the door, gun in hand. Faye gasped, Ein growled, I tightened my grip on my weapon.

"Vash the Stampede, the humanoid typhoon." I hissed.

"My old pals, Spike and Faye. How wonderful to see you again after all these years." The tall blonde man had one arm wrapped around Ed's shoulders, his gun pressed against her forehead. Ed whimpered, her usually happy grin was a worried frown, and her bare feet dangled from the floor as he tightened his grip.

"And lovely to see you too, Ed. I think Ed and I will be taking a little walk for a while, I'm sure she has much to talk about."

"What are you talking about?" Faye exclaimed, her hands crossed over her chest. Vash laughed, a laugh that many of us had't heard in a few years, and were happy with not hearing it.

"Silly Faye. You were always the one with her head in the clouds. Always thinking about money and shopping..." Faye's jaw tightened. "Anyway, unbeknownst to her, Ed here has been working for two people. Both you and me. I made sure the clues I gave to her via computer were easy to follow, and I led you here into this apartment where I planted that "antidote" which is really just asprin." Vash noticed my look of rage and chuckled. "Oh yes, Spike. This whole "invisble bomb of nuclear gases to kill off the entire planet and the only thing that can save them are two little pills which you put in the air filter in the CDX Building" is a bunch of crap, sorry about that. But it would have been a great plan, seeing as though you humans can't breathe without this bubble protecting you from space air." He gestured upwards to the celling, which had a skylight that revealed the giant protective "bubble" over the planet which did keep the man-made air inside. Ein growled, leaping at Vash's arms, but a quick swipe of his hand across the dog's muzzle and it knocked Ein away, smashing the dog against a wall and knocking it out.

"EIN!" Ed screamed, kicking and trying to bite Vash's arms. Ed lifted her foot up to his head, kicking Vash in the face, and then she slammed her foot back down into his groin. Vash groaned, his grip releasing a little, enough for Ed to slid out and scoop up Ein in her arms. I immediatly snatched Ed and threw her onto my back, following Faye (who had run over to the fire escape and began dashing up the ladder to the roof) up the ladder. Vash jumped to his feet, letting loose a fury of bullets which I barely missed as I sprinted up the ladder.

"Spike, you can't outrun me or kill me, what are you going to do?" Vash snickered, darting up the ladder. I followed Faye from rooftop to rooftop as we jumped across to reach our ship.

"Faye, why in God's name did you land The Bebop all the way over there!" I yelled to her, pointing at my ship maybe a thousand feet away from the rooftop we ran across.

"I didn't land it, Jet did!"

"Oh, so now you blame it on Jet when he's sick and you and I both KNOW he didn't land it!"

"You know Jet, he'll do anything and especially everything when he's sick! Even land The Bebop!"

"I stood there and saw you land Bebop, Faye! You're lying!"

"Since when do I tell the truth?"

 

"FAYE!" I argued, jumping across the gap between the two buildings. Faye had gotten several dozen feet away from me, since she wasn't carrying a sniffling, wiggly 13-year old on her back. "Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky the 4th, when we get back to the ship, you owe us all an explaination!" I huffed, knowing I sounded exactly like Faye when she scolded Ed.

"Ed is sorry, Ed didn't know Vash was bad." She sobbed, holding Ein in her hands as she gripped me tighter around the waist with her legs. The girl was impeccably strong, I noticed, as she proceeded to crush my intestinal organs as she tried to hold on. A loud voice from behind me interuppted my thoughts and I whipped around in mid-jump to see Vash about 30 feet away.

"You'll never get rid of me, Spike." Vash shouted.

"Spike, look out!" Ed screamed, and I turned back around to see the old rooftop had caved in from when Faye had landed her jump. Somehow she managed to bounce away before the roof fell through, and I was headed straight for the hole, back first. I reached up and threw Ed off my back as I passed through the hole, whipping around to land feet first on the floor below.

"ED, RUN TO THE SHIP!" I yelled, and heard light footsteps pattering above my head. Hopefully she would make it, the Bebop was just a few steps away from the hole I had fallen through. I rushed over to the fire escape ladder and flew up the rungs, busting through the trapdoor and jumping to my feet on the roof. It was almost in slow-motion as I saw Ed run towards the ship, and Vash jump from the building next to the one I was on. He seemed to fly through the air, missing the hole completely and landing his jump in a crouch, inches away from the roof's hole. I pulled out my gun and fired several shots towards Vash, but he rolled and hid behind a large pile of cement bricks for cover. Ed had dashed into the ship, and Faye was starting the engines up. I ducked behind piles of bricks and wood, avoiding the shots from Vash's gun as I made my way to the ship. The Bebop's engines whined, then burst into action. Taking it as my cue, I sprinted towards the ship's door as it closed slowly.

"Just a few more inches...come on, Spike!" I urged my tiring body to the peak of my energy, then without warning I felt a stab in the back of my shoulder, and I toppled onto the door as it was closing, and the door slammed shut as I rolled into the ship. The Bebop lifted off with incredible speed, and blasted towards the hyper rings, our only means of escape. The giant bubble that protected the planet had two hyper rings, one for ingoing and one for outgoing ships. It was the only way out. Somehow, Vash always had a back-up plan. Last time he rigged the planet we escaped from with a real bomb that exploaded as we flew out of the hyper ring. I knew Faye didn't want to take another chance, and I breathed a sigh of relief as the screaming of the hyper ring passed, shooting us back out into space again.

"Ein, Ein, bark at Ed, do something, Ein!" Ed whimpered. She sat on the couch in the main room, Ein's limp body in her lap. I pulled myself to my feet and hobbled over to the couch, dropping into the cushions. Ed sobbed as I looked over Einstein's little body, ignoring the bullethole in my shoulder for the time being.

"Ed, I think Ein's gonna be okay. Nothing seems to be broken. I think Ein's just knocked out." I reached into my suit pocket and pulled out a bottle of smelling salts, opening it and waving it in front of Ein's nose. The dog blinked, then groggily sat up in my lap, a grin on both the dog and Ed's face. Internally, I smiled, glad that Ein was alright. I always had a soft spot for that dumb old dog.

*note from author* This is not a fanfiction. I repeat, not a fanfiction. It's a writing AUS with a few characters from an anime. If it were a fanfiction, there would be more to it, and more plot, and it would just generally look more like a fanfiction.