Title: Unknown Session #1: Identity Crisis

Chapter: 2

Author: The Infamous Kid Pixie

Disclaimer: I don't own Cowboy Bebop or any rights thereof. Do not sue me.

Author's Note: Because I managed to get the computer uninterrupted for two hours, I'm posting this chapter earlier than I said. Thanks very much to That Darn Punk and Nathaniel Hawthorne for reviewing me and for the criticism. I appreciate it, really. I'm not trying to argue with you, Nathaniel, but shouldn't you make a prairie oyster before you get so hammered you can't remember what goes in it? That's what I thought, but then, I'm probably wrong. OK, enough chatter, on with the story.

Unknown Session #1: Identity Crisis

Chapter Two

            "So, tell me again, why do I have to come with you?"

            Spike's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. The girl from the street sat behind him in the Swordfish, handcuffed to her seat.

            "Because bounty heads don't just disappear into thin air and leave a little girl behind in their clothing, and until I find out what connection you have with this bounty head, you're coming with me," he replied shortly.

            "Oh. Could you maybe remove one of my handcuffs? I have this horrible itch on my nose, and I'd really like to scratch it," the girl commented. Spike rolled his eyes in despair.

            Since he had put the girl in her seat behind him, she had not stopped talking. To make matters worse, she toyed with everything, from her handcuffs to the hair on the back of Spike's head. It was cramped in the ship, too, and the combination of the bubbly girl and lack of space were driving Spike crazy. She had showed a moment of coldness in the alley, why couldn't she be like that now? When faced with sadism or perkiness, Spike would've taken sadism any day.

            "Hey!" the girl cried, pulling Spike's hair, "my nose still itches, you know!"

            "Would you be quiet for half a second and give me a minute to think?!" Spike growled. The girl grinned, unabashed, and immediately began talking again.

            "You're awfully tense, you ought to relax more. My name is Mickey, what's yours?" the girl, Mickey, as she called herself, asked.

            Spike sighed in resignation. "Spike," he answered. Mickey smiled.

            "It's a good name. So, Spike, where are we going, anyway?" she babbled.

            "To the Bebop," Spike stated. Mickey cocked her head to one side, confused.

            "Bebop?" she asked.

            "Yeah. Bebop. Over there. See it?" Spike inquired, pointing past the viewports. Mickey leaned over as far as the handcuffs would allow, smiled calmly, and settled back into her chair.

            "A ship. The Bebop is a ship. Of course," she murmured, and began to giggle quietly. Spike cocked an eyebrow quizzically at her, but he was beyond trying to understand the way her mind worked. He simply docked the Swordfish in the Bebop with a slightly bemused look on his face.

*          *          *          *          *          *

            "So you're telling me that she just appeared out of nowhere in the bounty's clothes?!?"

            Spike grumbled. Now he had two annoying women to deal with. "For the fortieth time, Faye, yes! That's exactly what happened."

            "Well, where is she?" Faye growled. Spike shrugged noncommittally, pointing towards the Bebop's hangar.

            "I left her in the Swordfish," he said as he trekked to the fridge for a beer. After all, he never got to finish the one he'd started on Jupiter.

            "Baka," Faye muttered, heading towards the Swordfish and the odd girl within it.

*          *          *          *          *          *

            Mickey sat inside the little red cruiser, bored out of her mind. The fuzzy haired man, Spike, had left her and she didn't know when he was coming back. She sighed crabbily and flopped back into her chair, when she heard a small click. Cautiously, she tugged on her handcuffs. The click sounded again. A smile formed across Mickey's face as she pulled a dagger out of her boot and picked the handcuffs open with it. Shortly, she was free from the makeshift prison and was roaming around the hangar. Twirling her dagger lazily, she thought about why she hadn't killed her captor with it while they'd been flying. It wasn't like she couldn't have snagged the controls and piloted the Swordfish herself. I guess I just wanted to see what would happen if I went along with it, she thought. Her pants slipped down her hips a little as she slid the knife back into its sheath. "I've really got to see what I can do about these clothes," she mumbled to herself.

*          *          *          *          *          *

            Faye wandered into the Bebop's hangar, still cursing Spike under her breath. How stupid of him, to leave a potential bounty unattended. Nobody was sure; she might have a bounty on her head even bigger than the one Spike had been after. As she climbed onto one of the Swordfish's wings to have a look inside the cockpit, she heard a slight padding sound behind her.

            Faye flipped around to see a pretty lilac haired girl staring at her. The girl was smiling in a rather odd way, almost as if she were trying not to cry. She flipped a dagger half-heartedly into the air, watched it twirl, and caught it lazily.

            "Sorry if I startled you," the girl said brightly, "but the fuzzy haired guy left me locked up and I got bored. Does the knife bother you? I'll put it away." She bent down and swiftly restored the dagger to its sheath. Faye decided she liked this girl. She was collected and effervescent, despite the fact that she was being held as a prisoner of sorts.

            "Knifes don't bother me, little girl, guns are faster, and that's what I carry. What's your name?" Faye said.

            "Name's Mickey. I like you a lot better than Spike. He's grouchy," Mickey replied.

            "Ignore Spike, he's just a jerk," Faye advised. "Hey, Mickey, how old are you?"

            "Seventeen," replied Mickey. "You never did tell me your name, you know."

            "I know. I'm Faye," the older woman said. She lit up a cigarette and took a long drag from it. "You, Mickey, are going to come with me."

            "Yeah, OK, sure," Mickey said, suddenly sarcastic and suspicious. "Why would I trust you?"

            Faye laughed hysterically at the bold girl. "Well, if you want to stay in the hangar, that's fine with me," she giggled, wiping her eyes. "I thought you might want some food or something."

            Mickey's stomach took the mention of food as a cue to growl. The girl smiled sheepishly, saying, "Well, I am a little hungry…" Faye laughed.

            "I know it. You look half starved, and the baggy clothes don't help. Puff on this," Faye said, tossing Mickey one of her cigarettes, "and we'll see about getting you some food and clothes that fit."

*          *          *          *          *          *

            Within a half hour, Mickey was outfitted with clothes and a good meal, and much to Spike and Jet's dismay, was wandering around the Bebop. Ed adored the girl, seeing her as a new source of entertainment. Conversely, Mickey annoyed Jet twice as much as she irked Spike, so much so that he even locked her in the bathroom for ten minutes before she broke her way out and started to scream at him. Faye stood by and laughed in delight, stating, "Now there's a girl after my own heart."

            After Jet had been sufficiently scolded, Mickey turned to Spike. "Well, what do you say we get straight down to business, shall we? Why am I here?" she asked.

            "I told you before; I want to know what connection you have with that bounty," Spike replied.

            "I don't have a connection with the bounty," Mickey shot back.

            "Then why were you wearing his clothes?" Spike countered. Mickey glared.

            "How do you know they were his? I could just like baggy clothes, and I could just have happened to be wearing the same outfit he had on, did you think of that?" she snarled.

            "Or you could just happen to have been shot in the same place," Spike said, flashing a cocky smirk and throwing down the jacket and t-shirt she had been wearing previously. On the left shoulder of each garment was a small hole surrounded by what appeared to be blood. Mickey blanched.

            "Let me see your shoulder, Mickey," Spike ordered, a mocking tone in his voice. Mickey's eyes narrowed to mere slits as she smiled coldly. She pulled the edge of her shirt down, revealing a round scar in the center of her left shoulder.

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A.N.: So what'd you all think? Review for me, please. Thanks so much for reading! I should have the next chapter up within three days. Thanks ya'll!

Ja Ne!

*~Kid Pixie~*