COWBOY BEBOP (Page 3)

It's status quo for the members of the Bebop. As usual, they have few woolongs and very little to eat. Faye is piloting the Redtail looking for her next bounty when she witnesses a tanker explosion, the result of a terrorist attack. This is no ordinary attack. The explosion unleashed a chemical virus that quickly kills those that come in contact with it. Those that do survive have intracranial hypertension. That's increased brain pressure with no other wounds. Faye was out of range, but she did get a glimpse of the man responsible.

Once back on the Bebop, Faye is surprised to see T.V. coverage of the attack. Whoa, the bounty for catching the responsible party is 300,000,000 woolongs. Spike decides to do some investigating of his own, while Faye enlists Ed's help in tracking down the mystery man. Spike's searching takes him to a busy marketplace where he meets Rasheed, who we later discover was the man responsible for developing the deadly virus. Faye, on the other hand, makes her way to the terrorist's apartment where she is exposed to the virus and taken captive. Once there, we learn the terrorist is Vincent Volaju, a once military man who was used as a test subject. He kisses the bound Faye giving her some of his blood. Suddenly, the virus has no effect on her. Faye learns Vincent plans a big attack on Halloween, because he says, "Halloween is the one day when a soul in purgatory can be released."

On another part of Mars, Spike has infiltrated the pharmaceutical company where the illegal chemicals were made. At the same time Jet is secretly meeting with the police (Check out the part where Jet is watching an old John Wayne Movie.) Spike has an encounter with the beautiful Electra and just barely escapes. The woman as well as the man in charge of the company are all looking for Vincent.

To make a long story short, we learn that the virus is a nano machine that could be passed from one person to another by touch or by air. When it entered the human blood stream it multiplied spontaneously mimicking the lymphocytes joining them and moving freely throughout the body. In the end, it entered the brain and slowly destroyed it, and then it disintegrated, passing out of the body as protein leaving no trace of itself. When the nano machines hit the brain, they appear as lights...lights in the form of butterflies. Spike learns that because of her past relationship with Vincent, Electra has the vaccine circulating through her body. They come up with a antidote and set out to stop Vincent's ultimate terrorist attack. In conclusion Vincent is taken down and peace is again restored.