Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ No Nothing ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: Sadly, the amazing show that is Cowboy Bebop isn't mine.

Chapter 2

The journey to Mars was quite long and uneventful, which made Spike rue his decision to leave the cigarettes on the BeBop. However, his thoughts kept him pretty occupied, as well as his memories.

Only moments after landing, Spike caught sight of a woman he suspected to be Jenni Nox. Nonchalantly taking a seat on a bench and applying his identification specs that doubled for him as sunglasses, he waited for her to indifferently pass him. Once she passed by, Spike examined her next to the holographic image of her in his glasses. With the only difference between the two figures being the choice of dress, Spike had correctly located Miss Nox. "Gotcha," he said with a grin.

Before Spike rose to his feet to approach her, he noticed two hunched figures lurking in the shadows, watching her. Not ready for his payment and and answers to be dragged away, Spike began to retrieve his gun from his pocket and get to his feet. However, Jenni Nox's watchers, along with herself, were further up the street from Spike than he had guessed. The two men jumped from the shadows at her, pinning the seemingly helpless woman to the ground. Spike shook his head as he ran towards the huddled mass of people. Some things never change, Spike thought to himself.

Spike should have guessed that a woman with a nine-million woolong bounty on her head wouldn't be completely helpless. In the blink of an eye, Jenni Nox was on her feet and her attackers were sprawled on the ground ten feet from where she stood. One of them, a manic gleam in his eyes, stood up and ran back towards her. Before he could so much as touch her, her foot collided with his neck in a powerful, artfully mastered kick. His neck snapped on contact with a sound like a gunshot and he lay lifelessly on the ground. His friend, who seemingly got the point, ran off in the opposite direction as she shot a bullet through his back and he fell to the ground.

Pulling herself together, she started to walk off in the same direction she was headed. However, she didn't get far since Spike was standing behind her with a gun to the back of her head. "Pleasure meeting you here, Jenni Nox," he said to her. "Too bad it won't be so pleasant for you once we get you to the ISSP."

"I guess I've been caught. Better by a bounty hunter than a cop," she said, turning to face Spike.

For a second, Spike could have sworn that his heart had skipped a beat. If it was possible, she appeared more beautiful in person than in her pictures. Her eyes were dark orbs, but the little emotion showing in them was only that that had leaked from behind their shields. Standing about one hundred-sixty-two centimeters tall, her figure was slender yet greatly curved in all the right places for a woman.

Mentally shaking himself at the thought, Spike forced himself to remember that she was his and his friends' meal ticket, not a possible friend or love interest. "If you'll just come with me, I assure you that the room we have waiting for you is well worth your bounty."

"Exactly how much is my ass worth now?" Jenni asked while complying with Spike's orders.

"A good nine-million woolongs," he said as he opened the hatch to let his captive in. Surprisingly, she didn't say a word or make any moves to escape. Nonetheless, Spike pulled out a pair of handcuffs and cuffed her next to him. Finally, his craving getting to the extreme, he asked, "You wouldn't happen to have -"

"A cigarette, perhaps?" Jenni asked with a grin. Spike nodded, and she sarcastically replied, "Sorry, fresh out. Besides, it's a nasty habit."

Grumbling to himself, Spike started up the Swordfish II and headed back to the BeBop.

Meanwhile . . .

"Jet, I know he went to find her!" Faye screeched as she interrogated Jet as to Spike's whereabouts.

Jet just shrugged as innocently as possible and said, "I don't know what you're talking about. He just went out to pick up some stuff."

Folding her arms across her chest, Faye asked, "Then what did he go get?"

His eyes got wide at his sudden memory lapse of Spike's alibi. "He . . . erm . . . lemme think . . ."

"It really isn't any of your business," a voice from behind them said. Spinning around, the figure of Spike, leading another person, became visible. Stepping into the light, the other person was seen to be wearing a pair of black boots, white pants, a pin-striped jacket with a white shirt underneath, a black Fedora, and a pair of handcuffs. "Guys, this is Jenni Nox."

Haughtily pointing at Spike, Faye said, "See, I told you! You can't tell me some bogus story and expect it to be believable when you stutter and don't know half of it!"

Blatantly ignoring Faye, Jet walked over to Spike and Jenny. "Good job, buddy. Is she armed?"

"She beat the shit out of some guy on the streets and shot another one, so I'm going to say yes," Spike said from the kitchen while rummaging through the trash in search of his earlier discarded cigarettes.

Returning to the kitchen, Jet said, "Alright then. You search her."

Spike, who was up to his armpits inside the wastebasket, jumped and smacked his head. "What?!" he exclaimed, extracting his head and torso. "That would be totally indecent, don't you think?"

Snorting, Jet said, "Since when have you cared about indecencies?" This earned him a scowl from Spike. "I'm not too fond of the idea of having a bunch of holes blown through me while I'm asleep," Jet said while stubbornly crossing his arms across his chest. "Besides, you caught her, so she's your responsibility until we turn her in."

"Yes, Mother," Spike retorted in his usual reply to Jet's lectures and orders. Needing to satisfy his addiction, Spike took out his lighter and a soggy cigarette. "Dammit!" he exclaimed as he chucked the pack back in the trash and sauntered out of the room.

Once Spike was safely out of the area, Ein entered and sat next to Jet's feet. Giving the dog a scrap from the meal he was preparing, Jet said, "Something's got our Spike, Ein."

Jenni was seated on the couch, still in her bindings. But since Faye, who was supposed to be watching her, had wandered off, she was all alone. A plan to at least escape from the cuffs had been formulating in her mind for a while, and she decided now would be the best time to put it into action. Reaching up to the brim of her hat, Jenni withdrew a small flat piece of metal with slightly etched edges. Easily maneuvering the piece into one of the keyholes -

"I don't think so," Spike said from behind her as he took the passé-partout from her grasp.

"Damn you," Jenni uttered with a frown as Spike pocketed the key. "Could you at least take these bracelets off for a while? You have no idea how uncomfortable these things are," she pleaded.

With a smirk, Spike said, "I thought women loved jewelry."

She stood up and started to walk around the room. "I'm not like every woman," Jenni replied as she stretched her arms over her head. The hem of her shirt and jacket came so far up as to show off much of her stomach. Spike pretended not to notice, so as to keep a cool head, however difficult it was for him.

"You'll be out of those cuffs," Spike began, an alien blush starting to spread over his face, "as soon as I'm sure your lack of weapons won't be a threat."

She eyed him for a moment, as if checking to see if his reason was true. "Fine," she replied, reluctantly standing in the middle of the room.

After about five minutes, which included a pile of lethal weapons all taken from their various hiding places on her body, Jenni started to make conversation. "You know, after spending a few hours with you, all I know about you is that you're tall, good-looking, and smoke."

"Well, you're just full of compliments today," Spike stated, running his hands over her back and removing another Dixon 84 pistol from underneath her jacket. "And heavily armed."

Jenni said, "No, I'm just honest. Take this for example: Grab my ass and you get the shit knocked out of you."

"Don't worry," Spike remarked. Then, with a roguish grin, he said, "Unless, of course, you give me permission."

Rolling her eyes in distaste, Jenni said, "Men. What imbeciles." After spinning around to face Spike, Jenni said, "Why don't we start with something simple. How about your name, for instance?"

Spike removed another blade from the base of her boot before answering. "Spike."

"You look like a Spike," Jenni declared.

Raising an eyebrow, Spike said, "I guess that's a good thing." He gave her a last quick overview before mentally deciding she was clear.

Jenni started to fidget. "Are you done yet?"

"Yep," Spike replied casually while removing his jacket and discarding it onto the sofa and collapsing on top of it in exhaustion, using it as a pillow.

"Then are you going to free me?"

"Nope."

Her eyes narrowed slightly at this. "And why not?"

Spike just remained in his previous position and said, "You called me an imbecile."

"You called me a criminal on the way here. So we're even." This got a little bit of a rise out of Spike, but not enough to compel him to release her. This just drove her to use her 'womanly charms' to get him to comply with her wish. Mind you, this wasn't Jenni's favorite way of going about things, but she figured that even if she could reach one of the guns he'd missed, it wouldn't get her out of the cuffs. So she walked over and straddled Spike, sliding her hands behind his head. This startled Spike at first, but he managed to keep a sober appearance and easily got used to the situation. "Pwease, won't you rewease me?"

Without saying a word Spike took a small remote out of his pocket and pressed a large gray button in the center of it. There was a clicking noise around Jenni's wrists, and the handcuffs fell to the floor behind them. "There. Now do you want anything else?"

"Actually," she said, starting to walk off in the direction the scent of food was coming from, "I think I'll grab a drink.

Before Spike was on his feet, she was gone. Instead of getting irritated with her like he did with Faye, he just smirked and said to himself, "What the hell have I gotten myself into."

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Jet was putting the finishing touches on what was going to be a delicious meal when Jenni strolled into the kitchen and to the refrigerator. "I see Spike let you out of the shackles," Jet said, surveying her.

"Yeah, he did," she replied while withdrawing a glass-like bottle. "Smart comrade you have," Jenni said while trying to twist the bottle open. "And damn sexy, too."

"Since I'm neither female nor gay, I'll just sit here and act like I know what you're talking about," Jet declared.

Jenni smiled at him and said, "You do that." Her attempts to open the bottle weren't going so well, since she had reverted to twisting her entire body all over the place.

Jet extended his hand to her and she gratefully placed the bottle in it. At first he tried effortlessly to open it, but these attempts proved to be futile. After wrestling with it for a few minutes and still unable to get the top to budge, Jet exclaimed, "Agrh! Damn bottle!"

The bottle was quickly wrenched out of his hands by Jenni as she began pounding the neck of it against every hard surface in the room.

Spike slid into the room next to Jet and watched this little episode with interest. "So, how armed was she?" Jet asked as she put the bottle on the floor and began stomping on the neck. He mentally noted how she and Spike went about things in such an eerily similar manner.

"Armed enough to supply a small army, and possibly some civilians," Spike uttered.

It appeared Jenni had had enough of her little percussion ensemble, since she set the bottle down on a countertop and stepped slightly backwards. Her hand went down the front of her shirt and came back up holding onto a small revolver. Taking quick yet careful aim, Jenni shot a bullet at the bottle and managed to shatter only the cap and top rim.

Jet turned to Spike and blurted out, "I thought you cleaned her out!"

Scratching his head in wonder, Spike said, "So did I."

Ein came out from his hiding place behind Jet and timidly glanced at Jenni. Seeing the small dog, a gentle smile spread across her face and she bent down to hold her hand out to him. "I didn't know you had a dog," Jenni said, more specifically to Spike.

"First off, Ein's Jet's dog, and he tends not to like the people we take aboard," Spike said. "And second, there's still a lot you don't know about us."

"But I will," she said as Ein came over and allowed her to pet him.

"Maybe," Spike replied.

Jenni stood up and said with a grin, "Your unconscious usage of the word 'still' says that I'll eventually find out."

Lightly nudging Spike in the ribs with his elbow, Jet motioned towards Jenni, who had returned to petting Ein. "She's good."

"And wrong," Spike said while walking out the door.

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