Subject: [FFML] Her Destiny
From: "nom_de_plume" <nom_de_plume@MauiMail.com>
Date: 6/30/2000, 9:03 PM
To: ffml@fanfic.com


Her Destiny


The four figures deftly danced the apparent safety of
the shadows. Although darkness may have shielded them
from human eyes, they knew only too well such veil was
useless against the inhuman senses of their true enemies.

Relentlessly, they moved on, quickly advancing until they reached
the perimeter of their objective. Suddenly their leader lifted a
clenched fist, and all four froze. For a few moments all stood
still, until a low voice broke the static which continuously
whispered through their hardsuit's radios.

    "Priss, Linna, hold your positions. Nene and I will secure
the perimeter."

A weak, almost inaudible protest echoed in their helmets, but
otherwise the orders were obeyed to the letter. With catlike
stealth the pink- and white-suited women broke the tight
formation, slowly advancing towards the menacing tower of metal
and steel.

    "Work your magic, Nene," came the female voice. Nene grinned,
noting the slightly nervous edge in Sylia's words. She should
have known her better by now.

Nene quickly wiped the smile from her face. She was a
professional, after all. The redhead proceeded to scan her
surroundings, carefully activating and tuning short and long
range sensors with uncanny precision. Delicate electromagnetic
pulses spread out, creating a pervasive wavefront which swept the
landscape in front of her. Using frequencies invisible to the
human eye, she could nonetheless see the sensitive cone of
radiation through her visor. A false-colour image indicated the
relative wavelengths of the multifrequency radar. Although the
amount of information which bombarded the redhead was nearly
beyond comprehension, Nene easily digested and interpreted the
data on the fly. She had, after all, written the software which
controlled Sylia's admittedly extraordinary hardware.

A blip suddenly registered on the very edge of the scanner. It
wasn't quite heading towards them, but it was moving fast.

Very fast.

Nene suddenly realized it was moving towards something behind
them.

    "Priss! Linna! Incoming at one o'clock!" she screamed.

Nene and Sylia both spun around, only to see a dark grey
streak nearly miss the light-green hardsuit about a hundred
metres away. They both began to run as the bogey made a u-turn
to continue its onslaught.

    "Nene, what is that?" cried Sylia, as Linna prepared herself
to fend off the attack in the distance.

The redhead was way ahead of their leader, having already sent an
FoF pulse. Deftly manipulating the optical computers in her
helmet, she ran an exhaustive ID subroutine which she had
hand-coded herself, while simultaneously computing their
attacker's most likely course of action based on the heuristic
defense program she had also written. In spite of the tremendous
complexity this multitasking involved, Nene noticed an even more
serious problem.

    "Sylia, I can't find Priss."

An exasperated curse came through the speaker. Sylia's
frustration, however, was quickly interrupted as they arrived to
the scene of the battle. They both gasped as the monstrous figure
renewed its attack against Linna.

The dancer barely managed to evade the V-II SuperDoberman. With
uncanny ability she was able to deflect a powerful blow and
counterattack with her monomolecular filaments, but these barely
made a mark on the mecha's heat-resistant armour. Instead, the
boomer managed to grab one of the filaments and violently yank
the Saber off her feet.

    "Linna!" Sylia screamed, dashing towards her companion as
she unsheathed her suit's built-in blade.

Nene tried in vain to stop her. The heuristic's output clearly
indicated that a brute-force attack against the SuperDoberman
was useless, and her programs were theoretically infallible
according to Knuth's algorithmic theories. Her worst fears were
confirmed as Sylia's charge was quickly cut short by a powerful
laser blast which sprouted from within the mecha's snout.
Although the hardsuit managed to deflect most of the energy it
was clear that Sylia was dazed. Linna weakly tried to break free
but a powerful blow quickly put her down. The situation was
desperate, leaving Nene no choice.

The redhead focused the EMP with uncanny ability, but it still
managed to burn out her teammate's electronics in the process.
Had Sylia listened to her she could have spared her, but it was
too late for that. The invisible blast fried every microchip in
both hardsuits and boomer, stopping the SuperDoberman on its
tracks. The monster fell heavily to the ground, twitching in the
final throes of positronic brain-death.

Sylia and Linna lay still on the ground, immobilized within their
suits, but alive, as Nene's bio-indicators continued to flash a
comforting bright green. She would take them to safety, after
which she would begin searching for Priss. Nene wasn't sure what
had triggered the attack, but Priss's disappearance was a clear
indicator that her foolish brashness had once again endangered
all their lives.

As she approached her comrades a brutal blow from behind knocked
the redhead to the ground. The bone-shattering impact temporarily
blinded her with pain, but she managed to incorporate herself and
face her attacker. She realized she had carelessly neglected her
scanners while she was busy saving her friend's lives.

As she faced her opponent a cold shiver raced down her spine,
momentarily blocking the raw, white-hot pain pulsing at the base
of her neck. Two SuperDobermans stood side-by-side, fully armed
and prepared for battle. The redhead took a step back, but quickly
decided it was all the ground she was willing to give them. It
would take a few minutes for the pulse generator to recharge, so
she had no choice. Tightening her fists she prepared her attack.
The heuristics program gave her one chance in the millions, but
she was prepared to take it.

    "You want a piece of me?" she growled, grinding her teeth.

Suddenly, for a microsecond, one of the boomers hesitated.
Perhaps it was a quantum fluctuation, or maybe a tiny error in
the behavioural reflex code of the mecha, but it was all Nene
needed as she pounced on the mechanical monster with barely
controlled fury. The SuperDoberman fired its laser, but it was
too late, as Nene had already smashed her right fist against the
robot's snout, making its head twist towards its companion's
direction. The blue pencil of light cut the air in a blinding
flash, passing through the other boomer's neck, immediately
decapitating it. As oil and hydraulic fluid gushed from the
severed torso Nene spun around and plowed a powerful roundhouse
kick into the remaining SuperDoberman's midsection.

The mecha reeled backwards, but quickly regained its footing.
Nene also regained her stance, noting that the pulse generator
was almost fully recharged. She grinned behind her helmet,
preparing her final attack.

    "Stop!" a voice yelled.

The boomer froze. Nene, unfazed, slowly turned towards the
voice. Something in the back of her mind stirred, but it
remained clouded by the still-pulsating pain.

She almost gasped as she saw four figures approaching. When she
saw two more SuperDobermans she knew it was all over. It didn't
matter, however, she would go down fighting till the bloody end.
But then she saw the blue hardsuit, dented and bruised, Priss's
withered face peeking through the smashed faceplate. She was
being held from behind by yet another figure wearing a shiny,
bright silver hardsuit.

    "Very impressive, I must say. I warn you, however, that the
life of your friend here depends on your next move."

    "That voice," Nene thought, as she held her stance. "It
can't be..."

    "Nene, please, do as he says..." Priss whimpered, painfully
moving her swollen lips. She had taken quite a beating, and Nene
knew she had no choice. Slowly, the redhead let her guard down.

The boomer slapped her with such force that her own faceplate
shattered, driving tiny pieces of plastic into her cheeks and
forehead. The pain shot directly into her brain, but she would
not bow down to a piece of metal. Blood began snaking over her
features, but Nene simply licked it when it reached her lips.

    "I see you haven't changed, Natasha. You were always too
proud for your own good, always the stubborn one."

Nene's left eye twitched once.

    "Yuri," she hissed, nearly spitting out the name.

The faceplate of the silver suit slid open, revealing the
handsome features which had once enraptured her. The chiselled
jaw, the prominent cheekbones which framed those mesmerizing blue
eyes. Nene could tell that he too was intently studying her face,
and for a tiny instant she could clearly see that passionate
spark in his eyes. In spite of everything, it was clear he
had not forgotten those days of ardent youth.

    "It's been a while, Natasha," he continued, his tone
softening ever so slightly. "Nine hundred and twenty eight days,
plus thirteen hours, to be exact."

Nene was breathing very quickly now.

    "You remember..."

The man smiled, a sad, bitter grin.

    "How could I forget? How could *you*? I've counted the
hours and the days! At the Academy, since the graduation, I..."

    "Yuri, please!" Nene interrupted, biting her lip. "You
*know* I had to go, I had no choice! I told you to forget me!"

    "Silence!" Yuri screamed, throwing Priss to the side like a
sack of potatoes. He rushed forward, stopping mere centimetres
from where Nene stood. Even though he was wearing a hardsuit,
it was unable to hide the contours of the strong muscles which
lined his powerful frame.

    "Can't you see, Natasha? Don't you understand? The money,
the power, even the computers, they're are meaningless without
you. I've become an empty shell, I... I..."

He choked, fighting back the tears. Nene felt that her own heart
was about to burst, and simply stood there, unable to speak. Yuri
suddenly took his helmet off, long strands of golden hair falling
over his wide shoulders. Nene took off her own helmet, liberating
her beautiful red hair, and looked into Yuri's eyes.

    "I love you, Natasha," he said, with lush, trembling lips.

Nene noticed his face approaching hers, but made no effort to
avoid him. Within her a storm raged, an all-consuming fire which
engulfed her very soul. As their lips bridged the cold gulf
between their eager bodies Nene again felt that tantalizing,
long-forgotten tingle.

    "I love you Yu..."


BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! HEEEHEEEEHEEEEEE!!


---

At this point Nene pretty much hit the ceiling. The colour of her
face became many wavelengths longer: a deep, blushing red. For
the first time in her life she banged the "OFF" switch on her
computer before typing "shutdown -h now". She turned around to
face her quickly-becoming ex-friend.

Priss, however, has dangerously close to suffering a massive
stroke, as she squirmed like a salted slug, barely managing to
remain standing. Her face was nearly as red as Nene's.

HOHAHAHA!!! HEEEEEEEHEEEEEEE! NA-NA-HEEHEE-NATASHA!!! OH GOD,
PLEASE STOP! HAAAHAAAA!

    "That's not funny Priss!" the redhead whined, impossibly
turning redder still.

HEEEHEEEHEEE! I...I... LOVE YOU TOO... BPPGHT... YURI!!!!
HOOOOHAAAAHAAA! AN-AN-AND AND THE "TINGLE"!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
YOU'RE-YOU'RE KILLING ME HERE!! HEEEEEHEEEEEBWAAAHAAAHAAA!
I-I CAN'T BREATH! BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

    "Well, I hope you CHOKE!" Nene shouted, storming out the
room, only to run into Linna.

    "What's going...?"

    "MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!" Nene roared, rushing past her and
entering the bathroom across the hall, slamming the door shut.

Linna shrugged and entered the room. "Priss, what's wrong
with...?"

NATASHA!!!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! NATASHA!!!! HEEHEEE!

Linna stood there a few moments waiting at first for Priss to
calm down, and then a bit longer in hope that she would blow an
artery somewhere. Failing that, she silently proceeded to turn
around and leave the room, as Priss continued her manic
spectacle.

    "Fucking lunatics," Linna thought, as she calmly walked down
the hall and towards the kitchen for a nice cup of hot tea.

---

Late that night Nene lay wide awake in her bed. Although she was
unable to remain mad for any length of time, she knew she would
never be able to forgive Priss. Well, not for a year, at least.
Two months if she kept the secret. Oh, what the hell, she had
already soaked her toothbrush in toilet water. Still, that wasn't
nearly enough to compensate for the humiliation.

But then again, maybe it was a bit silly. She had never been all
that good at this fanfic stuff, and everyone knew self-inserts
are tacky. And pretending to be "Natasha" *was* kinda funny.
And that "Yuri" fellow, all mushy and handsome...

Nene blankly stared at her roof, sighing.

    "Yuri," she whispered.

Suddenly, she seemed to make up her mind. Silently she got up,
and put on her robe and Pikachu slippers. Making sure the door
was locked this time, she turned on her computer and waited for
fsck to finish. "Thank God for Emacs" she thought, as she logged
in and started the editor. Slowly, the redhead began typing,
reluctantly at first, but then quickly increasing the pace...

    "I love you Yuri, you know that," Nene replied, turning
away, "but it *can't* be, you know this as well as I!"

    "For once, heed your heart instead of your brain!"

Yuri suddenly pressed his lips against hers. Nene feebly tried to
resist him, but it was no use. She had no choice now, she knew
it was... her destiny!
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