The Bubblegum Crisis Center > Extras > Fan Fiction
Allegiance
Hi, my name is Nene. Nene Romanova. I got a little story here to tell you. I was a Knight Saber once. But that was a long time ago, back in Tokyo, when I was young. Bad mistakes, I made a few. One was very bad in particular. So bad, it almost cost us Priss's allegiance. Now here is some background info so you know how this whole thing happened (I'd hate to not give you the full story):
When I wasn't kicking boomer ass, I worked at the AD Police as a dispatcher. There was this guy who worked there, Leon McNichol, who had a crush on Priss. I don't know how Leon met Priss, but some how he did, you know? I knew because he asked me why I hung out at a club called Hot Legs after it closed. Turned out he saw me there, but he was looking for Priss. I thought Priss asked him out, then I called her, and judging by the way she reacted, which was mad, as usual, I thought there was something going on. I was young and naïve, so I thought it was cute and kind of funny, Ms. I hate the AD Police going out with an AD Police officer. I told everyone, Linna, Mackey, Sylia, everyone I knew because I was a loud mouth. When I told Sylia that I would try to give them a push on the back via E-mail, she got mad and said she'd get rid of me if I screwed up. On the next mission, which followed shortly there after, I was upset, so I tried to do better than I actually could at that point, and I screwed up big time. But it was a giant bug monster that ate boomers, so I think anyone in my place would have screwed up.
The ones above me, namely Priss and Sylia, were thinking about getting rid of me. Priss was the one who really brought it up. Either it was because she didn't want me to get hurt or because I was digging through her personal life. I think it was the latter. Anyway, Priss and Sylia made this bet that would decide the fate of my membership in the line up: If I did real crappy on the next mission, Priss wins and I was gone. If I did better than Priss, then I could stay and Priss would have to do something for Sylia. My ass was really on the line and I didn't even know it. I mean, how was I supposed to outdo Priss? Priss was the best of us. I didn't even know about the bet until after I blew out that bug monster's head by shooting my rail gun spikes through his mouth after it had shut down Priss and Linna's suits and nearly eaten Sylia. On the way back to the mobile pit, Sylia told Linna and me about it all, and we all had a good chuckle when realized what Priss would have to do next.
Sylia fancied herself a queen of fashion, and she knew beauty when she saw it and what would look good on certain beauty. Sylia had always been bugging Priss to wear something other than the leather biker clothes she usually wore, and up to that point, Priss had ignored her, but now, Priss had to wear something of Sylia's choosing. For Priss, Sylia chose a pink dress with a rose on its chest where the breast on a woman of Priss's frame and build would be. Priss also had to have her long brown hair put up in a ponytail of some kind and pink high heels. And nicest of all, these pearl earrings. All the while, Priss would be photographed and Sylia would put it up in the make over of the month.
We all had a good laugh. I laughed so hard I got hiccups. It was fun to see the mighty Priss Asagiri fall on her ass and pay for it. I even got to pull back on Priss's cheeks while Sylia took pictures. Mackey didn't laugh, but he had a big old grin on his face. We would all get photos later, small, big, 8 X 10's, the works. The only one who did not have a good time, of course, was Priss.
"Smile!" Sylia yelled.
"I am smiling," said Priss through gritted teeth.
"You call that smiling?" Sylia joked. "Oh come on, you can smile more than that!"
"I can't smile more than this," Priss groaned, muttering something nasty under her breath. "Unlike you, I'm not bursting at the seams with cheerfulness."
"Oh come on Priss! Enjoy it! You can laugh at yourself years later!" encouraged Linna.
"Bullshit," replied Priss.
"When I'm done, I think I'll give some photos to your band members," Sylia laughed. "They'd love to see them."
"No fucking way." Priss protested.
"Why not?" Sylia asked cheerfully. "You look beautiful for once. That's nothing to be ashamed of. I just think you should share it."
"Bullshit." Priss repeated. Priss was starting to get a little agitated by this point, not that it took a whole lot to agitate her. Up until now, she had been a fairly good sport about things, but now her ability to endure the friendly humiliation we were according her and be a good sport about losing the bet fading.
"Calm down, Priss!" Linna laughed. "Just a joke!"
"Besides, a number of people will see this in fashion magazines everywhere!" Sylia laughed. Priss said something under her breath again, but I couldn't hear it over all the laughter. "You look like a bridesmaid!" Sylia suddenly laughed.
"I don't want to look like some fucking bridesmaid." Priss did look like a bridesmaid, and she didn't like it. She didn't like all that girly stuff. God knows why not. "If anyone saw this fucking shit," she protested, "I'd never be able to show my face at a nightclub again."
"Really, I'd think something like this would improve your image."
"That's 'cause you're an idiot, Sylia," said Priss.
Then the flashes stopped coming from Sylia's camera, and we knew it was over. "Oh no, we're out of film girls. I guess our photo shoot is over." Linna and me whined we were having too much fun to stop now, even though it had been about an hour and a half. Priss didn't mind it, though.
"Thank you God," she muttered. I laughed even harder when Priss tried to stand up and walk and she nearly fell over. She was not very adept at walking with high heels.
"What's a matter, Priss?" I laughed. "High heels too much for the big tough Knight Saber!" Priss muttered something nasty as she reluctantly picked up her skirt and tried to go to the dressing room. But Sylia caught her on the way there and started messing with her ears.
"What the Hell are you doing?" Priss asked.
"I'm taking your earrings out," Sylia said. I could tell she was smirking, even though I couldn't see her face. "These aren't like the hard suit earrings, they're much harder to take out. And since delicacy is not in your vocabulary, I feel obligated to take these out myself and spare you the pain of ripping your ears apart trying to do it yourself." Personally, I think Sylia was just taking advantage of the opportunity to mess with Priss. Sylia had laughed so much she was crying by this point.
After Sylia took the earrings out, Priss tried to haul off again, with Sylia still saying all this nice, friendly little things to give comfort and at the same time, further torment the loser. "Next time we make a bet Priss and I lose, I'll wear some of that tight leather you adore so much, okay?" Priss tried to ignore her. "You can keep the dress if you like, Priss."
"I wore the piece of shit. Ain't that enough?" Priss asked in her usual, nasty manner.
"No really, I mean that. You can have it. I won't even charge you for it. Consider it a professional-"
"Shut up!" Priss turned around and yelled in Sylia's face.
"What? I'm just-" Sylia was acting all innocent as Priss cut her off.
"You're pushing me now. You're just pushing me now stop it! Just fucking stop it!" Something like this was bound to come out sooner or later. Priss was really mad now, and yet even her anger seemed funny to us. I guess it was her wearing the dress and looking all out of character. She eventually made it to her dressing room, with having fallen over only once. We were still laughing. Sylia was unfazed.
"Some people just can't except charity or compliments," Sylia laughed. There we were, me, Linna, Sylia, all laughing like a bunch of high school girls. Well, technically I was a high school girl, but I dropped out. "I just wish there was something more I could do to further spread and share Priss's long hidden, but now exposed beauty with the world."
Henderson made us a fabulous dinner. It was around eleven o'clock at night then. Mackey had to take his dinner to go, because he had to go help Nigel with the suits. Sylia had invited Nigel to both the photo shoot and to dinner, but he ignored both of her invitations. He ignored a lot of things, not that it stopped us from enjoying out dinner.
Mackey told me that he thought this whole bet thing was Sylia's way of telling Priss to stay away from Nigel, because Priss had been hanging out at Nigel's place a lot. I noticed that Sylia always had taken a shine to Nigel, but I didn't know that Priss liked Nigel too.
We were still laughing and making jokes about our triumph over Priss. We were laughing so much it was amazing we could eat without choking ourselves. But while we thought I triumph over Priss was funny as Hell, Henderson did not. Henderson showed this really stern disapproval about what Sylia made Priss do. You know, I really don't Henderson did not approve of the Knight Sabers in general, though normally he let that roll of his back. This little bet incident was an exception. I guess the whole bet thing violated his sense of ethics and morals as how people should treat each other. He cared a lot about Sylia, but he was disgusted by what she had done and let her know how he felt. He did it silently, without saying it aloud. Henderson gave Sylia these really dirty looks. He didn't have to say it. We all felt it. I'll never forget what Sylia said.
"Henderson, life is a road full of bumps. Every now and then, you just have to take those bumps on the chin," she said cheerfully.
"You would know, wouldn't you, Mistress Sylia?" he asked in that crusty old voice of his. Sylia looked pained and angered by his words. Linna and me were curious as to what he meant and we wouldn't know until later. Much later. Henderson left and we resumed our joking and eating. Henderson was a great cook. Even Nigel couldn't resist his cooking I'll bet. There we were, one big happy family, minus one member. Sylia joked that if Priss didn't want the dress, Linna could have it, seeing as how Priss and Linna were almost the same size, only an inch difference. (Priss was 5'8"; Linna was about 5'7").
It was around midnight that our little bonding ended. Sylia said she would check on Nigel and Mackey and see if Priss had finished changing yet or not. Even though Priss had lost the bet, Sylia still owed her money for the job. Sylia joked she might even pay Priss extra for being such a good sport over losing the bet (ignoring those last few minutes). I guess Priss took it a little bit better than Sylia thought she would have. Linna and me decided to go home. We both had work tomorrow.
On our way out, we continued cracking jokes about our victory over Priss. I always liked Linna. She was the bi-sexual older sister I never had. She was bi, you know. A lot of people thought she was simply gay, but she was actually bi. Despite being bi, I still liked her (not that way, of course). She was kind of like an older sister to me. Sylia told us that Priss had had a hard time getting the dress on as she was not educated in wearing the clothes of a lady, and that's why she would check to see if she was still there. We laughed at Sylia for being so silly. Priss was long gone by then, back at that run down trailer she called a home, brooding, smarting, suffering, healing, and making sense out of the friendly humiliation she had endured that night. While we were talking, I got this idea, an idea that would later go down in the long, sad history of bad ideas.
"Hey Linna," I said, "Remember Leon?"
"The ADP cop you told me about? The guy who you said had a thing for Priss? What about him?"
"How do you think he'd like a picture of Priss in that pink bridesmaid dress?" I asked. I don't know how I came up with the idea. I must have been drunk. Linna got serious and gave me this look. This doubting, forlorn look with a small smile grafted on.
"You really are just a simple creature, aren't you?" she asked.
"Huh?"
"Why do you want to go do something stupid like that? You know that it'll just make Priss and Sylia mad," Linna explained. "And you don't want them to get mad at you again, do you?"
"Who says they're gonna find out?" I asked.
"They'll find out, one way or another." Linna gave me that I know what's best look that only an older sister (and maybe a mother) can give. "Come on Nene, you know this is something that's just suppose to be for us Knight Sabers."
"So? I'm doing what Sylia said we should do: share Priss's long hidden beauty with the world!"
"Nene, I think Sylia was just kidding."
"Yeah, you think that, but deep down, we both know she wants to do it. Come on, we both know it," I protested, honestly thinking that Sylia was serious. I must have been drunk or something.
"What's the whole point, Nene? We busted Priss's chops, we had our fun, but the game's over now."
"Cause Leon works harder than anyone else in the AD Police, so he deserves to have something to wet his appetite and keep him company on those cold, lonely nights when there's no one by his side!" I said cheerfully. If only Leon had been there to hear me. He would have died laughing.
"Nene, you're not listening to me. The party is over." Linna grabbed me by my shoulders and looked me right in the eye so I couldn't ignore her gaze. "You know for a fact that Priss hates the AD Police. She hates cops in and authority figures in general. Her face twists with hatred at the mere mention of their name. Doesn't say something to you? Okay, doesn't that mean something to you?"
"Not really, except that she's got a real hang up with authority." I summoned up all my courage and sway power at this point. "It's like Sylia said, life is a road full of bumps, and sometimes, you just have to take those bumps on the chin. And Priss is all about that. Besides, even if Priss does find out, which she won't, in a couple of days, I'm sure she'd just forgive and forget."
"Nene, promise me you will not go ahead with this." Linna gave me this really stern, older sister look again.
"Oh Linna..."
"Promise me."
I stared into her eyes for a few moments, and I saw she would not accept a no. "Okay. I promise."
"Raise your right hand," she said. I raised my hand. "Repeat after me: I, Nene Romanova,"
"I, Nene Romanova,"
"Promise to be a good, considerate friend,"
"Promise to be a good, considerate friend,"
"By respecting my other friend's personal life,"
"By respecting my other friend's personal life," I felt like a kid memorizing the pledge or something.
"And not play matchmaker between her and the roughneck cop." That last part made me laugh. "Well, come on, say it. Say it."
"And not play matchmaker between her and the roughneck cop." I managed not to laugh too much.
Linna smiled. "Good. I feel better about you already."
Now don't get the idea that we hated Priss or something along those lines. We loved Priss (not that way, of course, at least not me and Sylia). Hell, we did everything we knew how to be friends with her. The problem was that she didn't want us to become her friends. Priss was like that. She did not make new friends easy. She may have lost some other friends along the line, but I didn't know. And after awhile, her top dog attitude got on our nerves, and Sylia, obviously, thought it needed deflating. Now in all fairness, Sylia had an ego all her own, but she was nice to us, so it really didn't matter.
It was about a half hour after midnight when we went outside and stepped on something that felt foreign on the ground. We looked down and almost didn't recognize it at first. We looked closer, and saw what it was. It was the pink dress Sylia made Priss wear, or at least what was left of it. It was torn up in the sleeves, the skirt, chest, just about everywhere. Priss didn't do that by accident, those tear marks were on purpose. We also noticed that there were some big ass tire tracks all over it. Priss had run it over with her bike a couple of times and left back here for Sylia to find in the morning when her customers came. We also noticed a bunch of spit marks. Finally, we saw that the rose was gone.
"Sore loser," I pouted, trying to release the immediate anger that arose in me. Linna had another word to describe her reaction towards Priss.
"Bitch." She looked right at me when she said it, using this defiled dress as an example, another reason why I should not try to give one of the photos to be to Leon.
We should have known that Priss would pull something like this. This was her revenge, the first step in her path towards rebuilding her tough girl image, by defiling Sylia's beautiful dress for no good reason other than Sylia made her wear it for one lousy hour and made her look beautiful in it. All because she lost a bet and had to pay the price for it. This was Priss's little way of saying screw you, fuck you, damn you, go to Hell, burn in Hell without having to actually say it. What was really sad was that the dress actually did look good on Priss. I'm not just saying that, the dress looked wonderful on her. Was wearing the dress really so bad? I wondered. I suppose Priss had a right to feel agitated, but that didn't exactly give her the right to go around tearing up other peoples' dresses. Linna picked the dress up, which was far beyond repair, and it nearly came apart as she tried to fold it up, and took it back inside to give it to Sylia. I followed her, not wanting her to be alone when she had to face Sylia with the bad news.
Conveniently for us, Sylia came up from the pit in the elevator. Great, now we can skip the plank walking and dive right into the mouth of the shark I thought. Sylia was smiling bright and cheerful as ever. She almost looked like Judy Garland from Wizard Of Oz. "Linna, Nene! It's good that you're still here! You won't believe this! Priss actually took my dress with her! This is too good to be true!"
"Um, Sylia, about the dress." God, I could tell it was painful for Linna to have to be the one to give Sylia the bad news. She held out what was left of the dress for her to see and unfolded what was left of it to unfold.
"Huh?" Suddenly, Sylia's face crumpled. No longer was she the jolly, cheerfully innocent and happy young woman of hours earlier, but now, she looked like a sad, heart broken child who had just found that her favorite toy had been broken. Tears started brimming in Sylia's silver eyes. Well, silver with a dash of purple and blue thrown in for good measure. She started crying as she took the defiled remnants of her once beautiful pink dress from Linna and held it in her arms. Tears streaked down her cheeks and started landing softly on the dress.
"I'm sorry, Sylia," said Linna. "Priss had no right to do this to you."
"Yeah, you oughta charge her for it!" I said, half kidding, trying to sound funny to help make Sylia feel better.
"I'd like to be alone, if you don't mind," Sylia sniffled. Linna and I turned away from and walked away. Pride was a terrible thing to waste. Our once triumphant night had been turned to pain and sadness because one person could not accept defeat. A beautiful moment, a beautiful night, and a beautiful dress, destroyed forever by one lousy bitch who just couldn't take a joke.
No boomers went rogue for the next week and a half. I didn't talk to Priss at all during that time. None of us did, either because Priss had isolated herself, or because we were all to mad to bother with it. At the midpoint of the second week that followed, I opened up my mailbox and there were my set of the photos. Suddenly, I felt a rush of joy and satisfaction surge through me. I laughed at the photos and I thought back on the good time I had had that night. I decided to ignore my promise to Linna and give Leon a photo anyway. I had refined my plan of course. I would not let Leon keep the photograph; I would just let him look at it for a minute or two to see how he would react. I was really just out to mess with him. I didn't even take into consideration what I would do if he wanted the picture. I only wished I could think of some way to get back at Priss for ruining Sylia's dress.
Before I left for work, I got an e-mail from Sylia telling me to come down to the store to train in the simulator after work. At work, I decided I would need a lift, and made a reluctant E-mail to Priss on my computer. Using the PC for personal use was against the rules, so I had to be quick and quiet, lest I be caught. When I got Priss on the other line, she was back to looking like her old self again, hair with split ends, no make up, usual, deadpan face on. "What?"
"Hey Priss, Sylia asked me to come to the store later to train in the simulator. Do you think you could swing by after work and give me a lift?" Priss didn't say anything. "Ah come on Priss, its been a week and a half!"
"Maybe." Priss was about to cut the line, but then I got the lame brain idea to bring up the subject of the photos and the dress.
"You tore up Sylia's dress! You made her cry!"
"You're breaking my heart."
"You should apologize to her!"
"Plenty more dresses where that one came from Nene. I'm sure Sylia can afford it and buy another one. Knowing her she's probably already bought more just like it."
"What you did was wrong!"
"Hey, she said I could have it and do what I wanted with it. She didn't specify what I could and couldn't do with it." Priss held a calm demeanor, but I seem to recall she had grin slowly growing on her face.
I growled at her, and then my mind shifted towards more pleasant thoughts.
"Hey Priss, guess what came in the mail today!"
"A million dollars."
"No, silly, your photos!"
"Whoopdee shit, Nene."
"They came out real good! You wanna see one?"
"No Nene. I was there, I don't have to see it."
"You should, they-"
"I'm sure I look perfectly ugly, hideous and repulsive."
"No you don't! I think you came out looking pretty!" I was about to say more, but Priss cut me off.
"And I don't give a damn to what you think! Fuck you and your goddamn photos!" Then Priss cut the line. I was unfazed. I was used to Priss's hair trigger temper by now. Her exploding for any old reason was common to me now.
"Jeez, what a grouch." Now this is where I made my mistake. Judging by Priss's anger, I thought she wasn't going to pick me up. So I figured today was as good a time as any to give a photo to Leon.
After my shift ended, which was in the evening, I asked around for where Leon was. Leon's brainy partner, Daley, said he was taking his break outside, then he joked that Leon didn't go for youngsters, which is funny, since Priss was only a year older than I was then (I was 18, Priss was 19). I liked Daley, he was cute, but I liked Leon too.
However, Leon, to say the least, did not like me very much. Everyone else was cool with me, but Leon hated me. I mean he just hated me, he could not stand me. He probably hated my guts for teasing him so often, but I actually liked him. It was friendly teasing, not the really prejudice teasing. Some people just couldn't take jokes. Every now and then though, he would turn the tables, and more often then not, he tried to act nice to me so that I would do him a favor, namely hacking and extracting restricted data. He didn't know much about working computers.
I went outside and started looking around for him. He couldn't have gone far, he had to go on duty later, and with his size and build, he shouldn't have been too hard to find. I looked around, and then I saw him. He was sprawled out on a bench by the curb with a half smoked cigarette in his mouth and empty coffee cup on the ground rolling away from his right hand. Silly Leon, I thought. I waltzed over there and tapped on his forehead. "Wakey wakey!" I whispered in his ear. He ignored me. Leon was asleep. I shook him a little bit more to wake him up. "Rise and shine!"
Eventually, Leon opened his eyes and turned his head to look at me and almost as soon as he saw me, he shut his eyes and rolled his head in the opposite direction of my face like I was Medusa or something. "Go away," he said in a groggily voice.
"I thought you were suppose to be quitting, Mr. Leon Noodle!" Leon Noodle. That was my latest nickname for him. He hated it, of course. He hated all my nicknames for him. I used to get such a kick out of watching him get mad over nothing.
"Have you ever seen a noodle shove a knuckle cigarette sandwich up somebody's nose?" He wouldn't have really hit me, he never did. Sometimes he looked like he really wanted to hit me, to just grab me by the throat and ring the life out of me, but he never did. Beating up a little 18-year-old girl wasn't tough or macho or cool. Of course, beating up other employees was an offense punishable by suspension from duty or being fired, so that helped me out a lot.
"I got a present for you!" I giggled.
"Whatever it is, I don't want it," Leon said, still kind of groggy.
"Oh yes you do!" I insisted.
"No I don't." Leon protested. "I don't feel like a present."
"Yes you do!" I insisted again.
"No I don't." Leon protested again. "Go give it to Daley."
"Yes you do!" I said for the third time. By this point, I was starting to get on Leon's nerves. He looked at his watch.
"Isn't your shift over?" he asked. "Get out of here, Nene. Go home."
"Not until you take my present!"
Leon finally looked at me, very tired indeed. "If I take your stupid present, will you please go away?"
"Mmm-hmm!" I smiled.
"Oh alright." Leon swung his legs over, stood up, stretched and cracked his spine. Good lord he was tall. He stood head and shoulders above everyone in the whole AD Police Department. Most of the guys heads barely came up to his shoulders. My head barely reached his waist. He was really built too. He worked out, he must have weighed about 240 pounds. I don't quite remember how tall he was. A little over 6'4". Yeah, I seem to remember he said something like that or I read that in his file while perusing the ADP files to delete Knight Saber reports. He was of Scottish blood, I think. I always thought he kind of looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Okay, I thought he looked a lot like Arnold Schwarzenegger. He had the same exact haircut, wore a leather jacket, had a motorcycle and had access to really big guns. All he needed was a pair of slick, cool shades (sunglasses) and he would have looked just like the Terminator himself. Having the song "BAD TO THE BONE" playing in the background would have helped too.
"So what's the big present that couldn't wait to Christmas?" Smiling wide, I handed him one of Sylia's photos. It was a plain shot, just Priss sitting on the chair in the dress. Leon looked at for a second. Then he gave me this What the Hell Is This look, and handed the photo right back to me. Leon said, "I don't care how nice she looks in a dress, I'm not going out with your sister."
Of course, I didn't have a sister and he knew that. That was just his smart-ass response because he didn't recognize Priss. Suddenly, I felt compelled to try and get him to see what he was not seeing. "That's Priss, you big idiot!" I screamed in his face, shoving the photo back in his hand. I must have lost my mind.
That What the Hell look came back. "Are you high?" he asked. Leon looked at the photo again, closer this time, and said, "I don't believe you."
"It is her! I was there!" I handed him a close up photo of Priss, followed by the two with me in it, the ones where I pulled back on her cheeks and made her blush.
"I still don't believe you," he said flatly. "This girl doesn't look like Priss. The dress, the background, the whole photo. Its-I don't know. Its just too clean, too dainty, too snobby and stuck up to be Priss." He rubbed his eyes. "Basically, the photo says 'Look at me, I'm so pretty'. I may not know Priss very well, but I'm pretty sure that she's not the snobby, gaze upon my beauty type."
"But it is her!" I screamed defiantly.
"How do I know? These could be fakes."
"They're not fake! They're real! They're real! They're real! They're real, you hulking immigrant!"
"You are one sad, strange, sorry little girl, you know that?"
I must have looked like a little kid screaming at her daddy for not buying her that little pony she wanted on her birthday. I don't know why I didn't just cut it and run. I should have just taken back the photos, laughed, treated it like a joke, and left. I didn't give him the photos because I thought that he and Priss were destined to be a couple (though they would have made a cute couple, I thought), but more so to test Leon to see how he would react. Somehow, he just didn't seem to recognize Priss. Maybe it was because of the dress, which was so out of character for someone of her caliber, or maybe it was the make up, or the ponytail. It was probably the dress. He obviously didn't see Priss as the dress up type. Who can say? Despite it, I was determined to prove to him that it was Priss, so I kept insisting that it was she, and I wasn't about to leave until he believed me. I must have been high.
"These really aren't that good anyway," he said. "I hate to say they're ugly, but they're ugly."
"What?" I asked. "What the Hell's the matter with you! How can you fail to see the beauty, the effort? The-"
"I don't like pink."
"What?"
"I don't pink," he repeated.
"What do you mean you don't like pink? How can you not like pink? What's wrong with you?"
"I just don't. Never have, never will, not even on a lady. I am a guy, after all. Besides, if Priss had to wear a dress for reasons I don't even want to think about, why in the hell would she pick pink? Pink just wouldn't look right on her. A black dress or a navy blue dress, I could see that. White or red, Hmm, maybe. But definitely not pink. A pink dress would make her look like an ugly piece of gutter trash chicken shit. But I didn't tell you that. And why should I believe you?" he asked. Leon had every right to think I was just bullshitting him. I had teased him a lot so looking back at it it's understandable that he would think I was just trying to play a joke on him to make him look the fool. "And even if it is Priss, why in Hell would she let you give something like this to me?"
Leon had me there. It occurred to me that Priss obviously did not like him much, and even though she knew me, he doubted Priss would let me do something like this. "She-she..." I stuttered for a minute, fumbling for an answer. "She asked me to give it to you! No, she told me to! She threatened to kill me if I didn't!" That was a dumb thing to say.
"Uh-huh. Fat chance," Leon scoffed. But in his eyes, I saw a faint glimmer of... I want to say hope, but that's not the right word. Longing. In his eyes, I saw something that said deep down, in the deepest reaches of his heart's domain, he wanted to believe me, but just couldn't. I had my reaction: He didn't like the photos and he didn't want them. I should have just taken them back and left. But no, I had to stay there and get him to believe me.
That's when I heard a familiar sound coming from my left. It was a motorcycle sound. It got louder as it got closer, but at the same time, it slowed down as well. I looked over at my left, and I saw a red figure in the distance getting bigger as it came at me. It was Priss, coming to pick me up from work to give me a lift down to Sylia's after all. "Oh shit," I muttered. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" Just before Priss pulled up to the curve, I started frantically yanking at Leon's hands, trying to pry my pictures out his big hands and shove them into my vest pockets and out of sight before Priss got there. I fell over trying to yank them back, I was in such a rush.
Priss pulled up to the curve and put her left leg down to support the weight of her bike while she waited for me. "Come on Nene, quit playing around. Oh crap," that's when Priss noticed that Leon was there with me. Again, at that point, she did not like him very much. Leon, however, atypically, just tried to ignore her by directing his eyes up at the sky. Priss bent down to help me pick up the photos, and I immediately tried to scramble it all away from her before she saw it.
"Get away!" I yelled. "Just get away from me!"
"Nene, what is the matter with you? I'm just-" then she stopped cold after picking up one photo. She looked at it, looked up at Leon, made the connection, and crumpled the photo in her hand. "You..." she said coldly.
"Oh shit." Priss had that look in her eye. That cold, mean, killer look that let you know there was no mercy heading your way. I stood up and backed up immediately and my head sprung around looking for cover, and I saw only Leon. Priss swung at me, but being pretty quick then, I ducked and sprinted behind Leon. I peaked my head around to see if Priss was still there so that I could maneuver Leon around. Priss was getting angrier by the second, her face turning an unsettling shade of red.
"Stay back Priss!" I yelled. "I've got a roughneck, and I'm not afraid to use him!" I kept maneuvering around, trying to keep Leon in front of me like a (human) shield, because at that moment, his over 6'4", 240 pound frame was the only thing that was protecting me from Priss.
"You behave yourself back there," Leon said.
"Protect me, Leon!" I begged. "Please!"
Leon scratched his head contemplation of my request. "Hmm. Should I or shouldn't I?" he asked aloud to no one in particular.
"Only if you want me to kick your ass!" Priss threatened.
"Hmm, well, I certainly don't want you to kick my ass." Leon tried to pull away, but I clung to him like a magnet to a refrigerator, or lint to the corners of your pants.
"Come on, Leon! You're not afraid of little old her, are you? You're twice her size!" I protested, trying to encourage him to protect me.
"I'm twice a lot of people's sizes, Nene, but that doesn't give me license to just go around beating them up."
"Please, if you do me this one favor, I swear to God I'll never call you another stupid nick name again! Never!"
"I've heard that one before," Leon scoffed.
"I really mean it this time!"
"That's what you said last time when I gave you that twenty to order yourself lunch. You still haven't paid me back for that."
"Wait! Let's make a deal! I got connections! I can get you things! You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
"Hmm, things, I like things, but I've already got things, so I don't know what other things you could get me."
"I can get you money! I know a very rich person! She can give you enough money to retire early! Or a Steve Reeves biography! Fine Cuban cigars! Anything! Just ask, and you shall receive!"
Leon scratched his head, and he looked at his watch. "My break's over," he said suddenly. He pulled away and started walking towards the building. As he passed Priss, he said to her "If you kill her, I know a good attorney."
"Leon!" I whined.
"Don't Leon me, it's too late for that." he called back. "You called me names once too often." I watched Leon till he disappeared into the AD Police building. Now over the years, I've contemplated lots of reasons as to why he walked away. First, he did not like me. Second, maybe he was trying to insinuate himself into Priss's heart by letting her do what she wanted. And of course theory number 3, he just didn't care. But I didn't have time to think about it at that exact moment. I was looking at Priss. She was not happy. I instinctively backed up.
"Now w-wa-wait a minute Priss, I can explain this," I said, trying to grin and trying to sound calm as Priss did her Terminator walk on me.
"My foot has some explaining to do your ass," she said coldly.
"Can I have a five second head start?"
"No!" With that, I ran away as fast as my little legs could carry me. Priss was on me like ultra violet sunrays on a person on a hot summer day. It was fight or flight, and I chose flight. "Come back here Nene! You've gone too far this time!"
"Priss! Hold up! Check your blood pressure!" I screamed, saliva starting to build up in my mouth, making kind of hard to breathe. "It was just a joke! A joke!"
"Let's see if it's still funny after I've rammed my foot up your ass a couple of times!" Priss yelled. "I'll kick you even harder if you don't stop running!"
"Priss, chill out! He didn't even like the stupid photos! He thought they were ugly gutter trash chicken shit!" I yelled, hoping that might alleviate her anger.
"Well good for him! It's nice to see that someone around here has a little taste!"
"If you do anything to me, I'll tell Sylia on you!"
"Shoot your mouth off! I'm not afraid of that pompous slut!" Ouch for Sylia, I thought. Priss did manage to catch me and grabbed me at the shoulder, spun me around so she could hit me, but without even thinking of it, maybe by accident, I threw my leg out and kicked her in the stomach. Priss fell to the ground clutching gut, which is a fairly vulnerable place, not that I think I kicked her that hard. It might have simply been the unexpectedness of it, I don't know. I didn't even stop to ask if her she was okay. I just ran away again not wanting to push my luck. My best bet was the garage. After a few seconds I looked over my shoulder and saw that Priss was after me again.
I had to keep running, I wouldn't have stood a chance against Priss when she was in kill mode. She was six inches taller than me and outweighed me by about 15 pounds (even though she didn't eat as much as me). But what really tipped the scales in Priss's favor was that she had about six or seven years of living the street life in her, where as I did not. I eventually made it to the garage and I ducked behind one of the cars at the far end of the lot. Priss came in, huffing and puffing and looking like she was ready to explode. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" she yelled. "You can't hide from me forever! "The sooner you come out, the sooner it'll be done and over with!"
I hid behind a big Dodge caravan, breathing hard but quietly, trying not to be noticed. I felt like Linda Hamilton hiding from Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator. I peered my head out to see if Priss could see me, and I saw that Priss was taking her phone out. Someone was calling about something. I couldn't hear what Priss was saying, but it was something serious, as she hauled off and did not continue looking for me. I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, God." I closed my eyes and fell asleep.
Someone woke me up about maybe an hour and a half later. It's hard to say. I remember being pushed back and forth and hearing an old voice.
"Hey kid."
I started blinking my eyes and looking around. I looked to my left and saw the guy who woke me up. It was Mr. Roland.
"What are you still doing here? Didn't your shift end a while ago?" he asked.
"Huh?" It took me a little while to really wake up and get back in touch with the world. "Oh, I uh, was tired and needed a place to sleep! That's it!" I said trying to laugh.
"Uh-huh. Well, I hope you're refreshed now. Go home."
"Uh, yes sir!" I picked myself up off the ground and jogged off. Of course, home was not where I was planning to go first. I had to go to Sylia's first to tell her what I did, that being if Priss hadn't told her already. Sylia was a reasonable person, and I just hoped and prayed to God that maybe Sylia could explain the concept that it was all just a joke, then maybe things could sealed up nice and fast.
It took me about an hour to get down to Sylia's store, THE SILKY DOLL. Fortunately for me when I got there, there was no one upstairs so I was free to wander around without looking suspicious. I took the elevator up to Sylia's little pent houseroom where she usually relaxed and hung out. She had a big pool up there too. When the elevator opened up, I saw Sylia, Priss, and Linna all converged in one little group. It looked like Sylia was handing out the pay for their most recent job. Now I knew why Priss left earlier. When Priss turned around and saw me in the elevator, she exploded.
"You! You little brat!" Priss bolted away from Linna and Sylia in my direction.
"Aw no, not again!" I nearly wet my pants. I started frantically started pushing the elevator button to go down, and I almost made it, except that Priss reached me just before the elevator door closed. She grabbed the door and slowly pushed it open so that she could get at me, but I was fast as lightning, so I ducked under made it passed her by going under her legs. Ignoring Sylia and Linna, I just ran like Hell with Priss following me in pursuit.
"Priss! Nene! What the Hell is-" Before Sylia could finish, Priss ran passed her, knocking her down. Priss chased me, and Sylia and Linna started chasing Priss. It was like the Abbott and Costello being chased by the Mummy or the Wolf Man. I was running pass Sylia's pool when I slipped on some water that was still lying there from Sylia's last swim, I slipped and I fell in. That's why you should never run at a public pool. Anyway, after the initial splash, in which I had gulped some water in my mouth, I saw a hand break through the water, grab me by the collar and hoist me out. To my horror it was Priss.
"Got you now, you little-" Before she could finish, I spat out the water which I had been fortunate enough not to swallow right in her face. Priss dropped me back in the pool and I began to swim towards the middle of the pool. I didn't know if Priss could swim or not, but if she could, think she would try to swim after me in the her biker get up, 'cause skin, tight leather, and water don't mix. I don't think she could swim, so at the time, I figured my best bet was to swim out to the middle of the pool, because then I'd be out of harm's way.
Unfortunately, I never made it. Priss grabbed me by my frantically kicked legs and pulled me out of the pool. I was screaming and kicking frantically to get away from her, but it did no good. Priss grabbed me, hoisted me up off the ground by my collar and cocked her right fist back, ready to do to me what she had done to countless boomers with her knuckle bombers. But before she could hit me, someone grabbed her by the arm and took her around the neck while somebody else tried grabbed on to her left arm and tried to force her to let go of me. Sylia and Linna had come to my rescue. Linna eventually got Priss to let go of me and I fell in the pool again. I swam down to the other end of the pool while Linna helped Sylia restrain Priss. Priss was starting to look like an out of control boomer.
"Let me go! Let go of me, God damn you!" she yelled.
"We'll let you go when we're ready to let you go!" Sylia yelled. "Now what the Hell is this all about?"
"I'll kill her! I'll kill her!" Priss yelled. "I run her over with my bike! I'll cover her in honey and stick between a beehive and an anthill!"
"Why?" Linna asked her. "What the Hell did she do to you?"
"Just give me five minutes to break every bone in her little body!" I hoisted myself out of the pool. I was drenched and my body started filling up with goose bumps.
"I uh, I sorta...kinda..." it was so hard to find the words. "I did something that I... probably should not have done. It was only a joke, but it probably should not have been done."
"Did you give that cop those pictures?" Linna asked. "God damn it Nene! You promised me you wouldn't do that!"
"What?!" Before Sylia could be answered, Priss broke free, knocking Sylia back again and hurling Linna into the pool. Priss ran at me again, and this time, I was too paralyzed with fear to move or anything like that. When Priss reached me, she back- slapped me and I fell in the pool for a third time. In the midst of all the water, I felt a hand on back helping me up out of the water. I knew it wasn't Priss, 'cause Priss's hand would have come from above. When I got up out of the water and gasped for air, I saw that it was Linna. As we got out of the water, we looked up and saw Sylia coming out of the elevator. Priss had decided to leave, and Sylia had chased after her.
Sylia's lip was bleeding, and she was clutching her stomach.
Sylia gave Linna and me two of her robes while our clothes were in her laundry. Sylia's robe, the pink and purple one, was way too big for me. Sylia was tall among us women, like 5'9", 5'10", something like that, when she wore the robe, it left her legs exposed to the eye. I think she had it made with the specific purpose of showing off her legs. I was short and thin, not tall and plump like Sylia, the robe which looked short and skimpy on her looked big and baggy on me, nearly going down to my ankles, and any attempts I made to roll up the sleeves failed. It would have fit Linna or Priss better, as they were closer to Sylia's size than I was. The robe Linna had fit her way better, 'cause like I said, Linna was closer to Sylia's size than me.
Me and Linna sat on Sylia's couch while Sylia stood in front of us, wiping away the last of the blood on her lip. I tried hard to ignore the look of suppressed anger on Sylia's face, and equally hard to ignore the I-told-you-so look on Linna's face.
"All right Nene, I want you to explain to me very accurately what you did that got our little Priss so upset," Sylia said.
I twiddled my thumbs for a second, looking down at the floor, trying to find the words that would explain that it was all meant as a dream. With a big gulp, I spoke.
"Um, Sylia, do you remember that guy I told you about who worked at the station with me?"
"Hmm, that Leon McNichol fellow. The hulking roughneck whom you said looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger and had a crush on our Priss?"
"That's him."
"Well, what about him?"
"Well, you mass produced all those eight by tens of Priss in that dress-"
Sylia held her hand up. "Nene. Please. Don't remind me of that dress. Please."
"Sorry, but it kind of ties in with what I did." I took another big gulp. "You gave 'em to us, and I was thinking it might be funny to see how he would react if he saw one."
"What?"
"She gave the guy a photo," Linna cut in.
"Linna!"
"You gave that man one of our photos?"
"Uh... Yeah," I said sheepishly.
"Oh God Nene why did you do that?" Sylia asked.
"Cause I wanted to mess with him."
"Nene, what have I told you about messing with people?" Sylia's question was very hypocritical, to say the least. What did she call her little bet with Priss? Good, clean, wholesome, all Japanese fun? "And why that cop of all people?"
"Cause he likes Priss... and he works hard, and I thought that after his failed attempt to kill that bug monster all by himself, he deserved a little something to brighten up his gloomy life. And I mean, I wasn't gonna let him keep the photo or anything."
"Nene, did you stop to think about what if he did want to keep it?"
"No. But it didn't really matter, 'cause he didn't even like the photos I showed him."
"Photos? I thought you said you were only going to show him one."
"Well, I was just going to show him one, but when he saw it, he didn't believe me when I told him it was Priss. So I showed him a close up of Priss's face and then I showed him the ones where I was pulling back on her cheeks."
"Why?"
"Because he didn't believe me!" I said, getting too loud for someone under the light. "He didn't believe that it was Priss in the photo. I had to try and convince him!"
"Why?"
"Because-" What was I suppose to say? "Because..." I trailed off. "I don't know why! I'm an idiot! I just wanted to mess with him! Don't get all up in my face just 'cause you wanted to play with Priss like she was some kind of over grown BARBIE doll!" I can't believe I attacked Sylia like that. I did something a little similar a month later, but looking back on it, I still can't believe I attacked her like that.
"Nene, how did my bet encourage you to go do something stupid like this?"
Calling me stupid only encouraged things. "How? How didn't it! You were the one who went around saying that you'd give the photos to Priss's band friends and put 'em in magazines and went around talking about sharing her beauty with the world and-"
"Nene, I was kidding! I would never do something like that!" Sylia said defensively.
"Well, with you, it's hard to tell when you're being serious and when you're just joking! You and your stupid bet!" Bad move.
"My stupid bet?!" Sylia yelled in disbelief. "I'll have you know Nene that my stupid bet happens to be the only reason you're still here!"
"Who said you had to?"
"I did it for you!"
"You did it for yourself! We all know that!" I really lost now. "No one said you had to go do that! No one asked you to! We all know you just wanted to mess with Priss and make her look like a Goddamn spectacle 'cause you got issues with people and you think everyone has to look like a supermodel and-" At this point, Sylia slapped me. She bent down and got right up in my face, which stung from her slap and had my hand clutching it.
"No one said I had to make you a Knight Saber, but I made you one anyway!" Sylia shrieked right in my face like she was the Wicked Witch of the West. "I could have dropped you for what you tried to pull but instead, I took a leap of faith in your skills and decided to let you stay! So you'd better show me some Goddamn respect, you child!" That brought me back to Earth.
"Alright, alright, enough of this already!" Linna stood up and stepped in, a bold and life threatening move on her part. "Yelling at each other won't solve anything!" Sylia looked like she wanted to say something, but instead she took a few huffs and puffs till she calmed down.
"He didn't like the photos."
"What?" Sylia asked. "He who?"
"Leon. The cop, remember? He didn't like the photos," I repeated. "He thought they were ugly chicken shit gutter trash."
"He actually said that?" Sylia asked.
"Mmm-hmm." Sylia looked stunned, as though the idea of any one individual not liking her photos seemed impossible.
"That man has no respect for a fine lady's wardrobe," she said.
"Neither does Priss," said Linna.
"Well, he is a guy, Sylia," I said. "So I guess it's okay for him not to. That and he doesn't like pink."
"Okay, so he didn't like my photos," Sylia said, muttering something nasty about him under her breath. "Did you explain this to Priss?"
"I tried to. All the time Priss was chasing me, I tried to explain to her that he didn't like the photos."
"And what did she say?"
"She said quote good for him, it's nice to see that someone has a little taste. End quote."
"And she still tried to beat you up?"
"Uh-huh."
"Nene, fun is fun, but there's a thin line between fun and just plain mean."
"And I crossed that line, right?" I looked back and forth for a second, trying not to make any direct eye contact. "I'm... I'm real sorry Sylia."
"Well, you should be. But it's not me you should be apologizing to. It's Priss."
"What next?"
"We'll see what happens. Either Priss will come back and forget about it, or she'll leave." Leave. Priss leaving. That was a thought I never wanted to ponder. That Priss would give up the Knight Sabers. Especially now that I was just starting to warm up to her.
I tried to get in touch with Priss over the next couple of days. I wanted to tell her I was sorry. I kept calling her up on her bike, at home, but she wouldn't listen. She just kept cutting the line. I noticed once that her left eye was swollen. I guess Sylia didn't let Priss go that night without a fight. I tried about five or six times, and Priss wouldn't hear me out. Priss only spoke to me one time, and that was after the sixth call.
"Nene, if you don't stop harassing me like this, I'm gonna call Leon and have him arrest you for stalking."
"What? You can't do that!" I protested.
"Who do you think Leon would side with? Me or you?" Priss would go do something mean like that, and Leon probably would arrest me, if not because Priss asked him, then probably as his revenge for all those nick names.
After Priss cut the line, I felt lucky. Yeah it was a mean thing to say, but at least Priss was talking to me again. So I took it as a good sign.
About a three nights after that, a boomer went rogue at a warehouse. Priss didn't show up. It was just me and Linna. The night and the fight is a blur to me since there were so many boomers, but I remember that boomer quite vividly. It looked a lot like a scorpion. It had the claws, the face, even the giant tail sticking out of its ass.
I wasn't use to working with Linna, and even though Linna had gotten the hang of her hardsuit pretty well, she was still very much trying to find her way as a Knight Saber. She told me to just hang back while she fought the boomer. I couldn't believe she was telling me what to do, 'cause even though I wasn't as good as Priss or Sylia, I was a veteran compared to her. But since I was not the girl of the hour, I decided to just go with it. Besides, Linna needed the practice.
Linna put up a pretty good fight, she managed to get pass the claws and went at it's face, which was where the core was most likely located. But then the boomer tried to bring it's tail down on her, and even though she jumped out of the way of what surely would have been a killing blow from a razor sharp tail, she lost the change to kill the boomer quick. Linna tried to slice its tail off with her ribbon cutters, a cunning move, but she just didn't hit it hard enough. After failing to cut the tail off, Linna somehow got herself caught in one of its claws.
I shot at the boomer with my rail gun in an attempt to get it to drop Linna. After a while and what must have been a hundred rail gun spikes, the boomer threw Linna away and came after me. I don't remember where Linna landed, she was lost to me in the darkness of the warehouse. I just kept shooting at the thing with my rail gun. After a few minutes and few hundred more rail gun spikes, I had to give my guns a chance to reload and I tried to fight the boomer. Falling back on everything I had learned from personal experience and from watching Priss, I laid down a storm of fists against the boomer's face. I dared not jump, for fear of that tail. I kicked at it a couple of times, I did just about everything I could think of. Eventually, the scorpion boomer grabbed me in its claw. I remember feeling like an empty soda can as the boomer began to crunch on my hardsuit, the pain was incredible. I tried shooting the boomer in the face with my rail gun, an idea I had wanted to test for some time, but it didn't save me. Instead, it got the boomer to throw me into a stack of girders which promptly collapsed on me and buried me, and would have killed me if not for the toughness of my hardsuit. I tried shooting the boomer as it came at me again, but it didn't stop. I got on my COM link to Sylia to ask for reinforcements.
"Uh, Sylia, we could really use Priss right about now! Me in particular!" But I knew Priss would not come to my rescue. I struggled to get free of the girders while the boomer continued to come at me between shooting at it, but I couldn't get free. My suit was mostly designed for support and computer hacking, not strength and combat.
When the boomer was just a few inches away from me, I closed my eyes shut while awaiting my inevitable demise. The next thing I knew, the boomer was screaming, then suddenly silenced forever. After a few minutes, I opened my eyes and saw the boomer to be sliced and diced, dead. I also saw tall, silver figure that was only vaguely familiar in the darkness. When the figure stepped closer to me, I recognized my savior. It was Sylia.
"Sylia!" I shrieked in relief.
"Nene! Are you alright?" Sylia asked me as she bent down and started lifting and throwing away the girders. We saw Linna staggering towards us in her hardsuit, looking like a drunk robot almost.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Sylia saved the day!" I yelled at her.
"Linna, get over here and help!" yelled Sylia.
"Okay." It took Linna and Sylia a little while to get the girders off me and pull me out, but we got out of there just in the nick of time, just as the AD Police started showing up.
I don't remember how many times I thanked Sylia as she helped boost me out of the warehouse, seeing as how my thrusters were trashed by the boomer's claws and the girders. "I swear to God Sylia, I will be your very best friend for the rest of your natural life!"
"Thanks, Nene."
"No, really, I mean it! You ever need a favor, just tell me and so let it be written so let it be done!" But Sylia's mind was elsewhere.
"Priss," Sylia said so coldly it made me shiver. I could feel Sylia's anger as we made the jump back to the Mobile Pit. "When I get my hands on that little tramp, I'll-"
"Make her wear another dress?" I asked suddenly, feeling like it was time for a joke. Sylia moved her head towards me. Even though I couldn't see her face and eyes, I could tell that she was not happy. "Nene, about that favor..."
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'll shut up."
The next day after work, I helped Sylia get a hold of Priss over the computer. I was the only one who knew Priss's e-mail address. Why Priss never gave it to anyone else is anyone's guess, but it made me feel kind of special that she gave it to me and me alone. I pulled it up for Sylia, got Priss on the line, and then I stepped aside and let Sylia have the show. Not that I didn't listen on the nasty conversation that followed.
"Priss! Where the Hell have you been?!" Sylia demanded.
"The answer is no, Sylia. I've officially retired as a model. Hey, has your lip gained weight?"
"Never mind about my lip damn it! Where the Hell were you, last night?"
"I was at HOT LEGS."
"What the Hell were you doing at HOT LEGS?!"
"Singing. That is what I do in the real world, you know."
"Fuck your singing! We had a boomer, last night!"
"Really? I hadn't noticed."
"Nene could have been killed last night Priss!"
"It ain't my fault Nene got herself in trouble."
"Not your fault?!" Sylia screamed in disbelief. "It's more your fault than anyone else's! You should have been there to back her up!"
"Who needs little old me when she's got you and Linna?"
"That's not the point damn it! She-"
"Is she dead?"
"What?
"Nene. Is she dead?"
"Is she- well no but-"
"Well then what are you complaining about? She's still alive, no harm, no foul."
"No harm no foul?! What the Hell is wrong with you?!"
"You wanted Nene to be a big strong Knight Saber, now you got it. As for me, I'm taking a vacation."
"What? A vacation? How dare you! Do you expect me to just put people's lives on the line and throw my goals out of the loop just because you have to go and throw a temper tantrum?! You bitch!"
"Excuse me, I'm throwing a temper tantrum? And just who is calling who a bitch here? You know, it was your bet, I'm not responsible for what happened after that. If you can give me a reason or a few reasons why it is my fault-"
"You want reasons?!" Sylia cut Priss off. "Here are some goddamn reasons! One, I thought you needed to have your goddamn ego popped in hopes that you'd work better with Linna and Nene! Second, I got tired of seeing dress like a tramp everyday! I just wanted you to look like a woman for once in your goddamn useless life! Nice and presentable! That's all I wanted from you! Nene wasn't trying to hurt you! No one was! And if you can't except the fact that Nene was just playing a joke, then maybe you are just a tramp!"
"Okay, fine, be that way." Priss was atypically calm and cool, and Sylia was on a rampage. "As long as we're being honest with each other, I think you're a pompous, arrogant, crooked, oversexed rich bitch who sells gutter trash clothes that I wouldn't give to a prostitute. And speaking of egos, yours is about the size of the USA, and could use a little deflating too. As far as pain is concerned, you could have fooled me, you lying chicken shit. Can I help it if I'm hurt by what Nene tried to do? If we made a bet and you lost and I made you wear some of that worn leather that I'm so found of while I photographed you, I wouldn't just go off flaunting that to Nigel or whoever the Hell it is who fucks you at night."
It got pretty ugly after a while. It was like World War III had broken out. They were calling each other all sorts of nasty names. I shudder to think of what might have happened if they had been in the same room together.
"It was just a bet! It was all in fun!"
"Fun? You and I have very different definitions of the word fun."
"I've noticed that! You seem to think beating up the people who would be your friends is fun!"
"You and Nene aren't really my friends. You're more like associates. And to be honest, I'm not really into beating people up. I don't believe in violence. I'm more into singing and motor biking. And while that may sound tacky, at least I don't go around humiliating people to get my kicks."
"Shut up!"
"Look Sylia, this is getting boring. I tried to let this whole thing just role off my back, I really did. I went through our little bet, I let you all have your fun, I let you do whatever the fuck you wanted, and after that, I tried to just move on." Priss was about to say more, but Sylia cut her off.
"Well I tried to ignore your destroying my dress, but now I think I'll charge you double, no, triple that of what it would have cost anyone else!" Sylia threatened.
"Uh-huh, pay triple the cost for an ugly piece of gutter trash shit dress that I didn't even like. Oh yeah, I'm shakin' in my boots."
"An ugly piece of gutter trash shit? Well what about that little number you picked out earlier? Was that an ugly piece of gutter trash shit?"
"Okay, you know what, fuck you Sylia, because that was just to keep from looking suspicious. I would not have taken that thing off the racks if there hadn't been customers stupid enough to buy your shit up there. Pink is not my color. You know why I wanted her dropped. You turned it into a sick chance to entertain yourself."
"Shut up! I don't know why I bother with trash like you sometimes!" Sylia screamed from nowhere. "To Hell with you, Priss! To Hell with your singing! To Hell with your career in the real world! To Hell with you personal life! Why don't you grow up! Think about other people for a change!"
"I do think about other people. I thought it was getting too dangerous for Nene to be out there fighting boomers, and you ignored me. If anyone needs to grow up and think about other people, it's you. And if anyone needs to go to Hell, it's you."
"What did you say?"
"You heard me, Sylia. To Hell with me, eh? To Hell with you. How do you like that? To Hell with your hard suits, to Hell with your games, to Hell with your money, to Hell with your goals, to Hell with the clothes you recommend, and once again, my personal favorite, to Hell with you in general."
There was a pause before Priss said anything again.
"Oh, and you really, really, have got to calm down. You're gonna give yourself a heart attack one of these days."
"Well I'm sorry Priss! We can't all be heartless, stoic, uncaring loners like you!"
"And apparently, we can't all show just a little courtesy to the underling who loses."
"What the Hell is that suppose to mean?"
"It means whatever you think it means, pumpkin. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to my vacation." Priss cut the line.
"Priss?! Priss!" Sylia kept screaming as though her screaming would bring her back somehow. "I'll kill her!" Sylia started screaming after giving up with the computer. "I'll kill her myself!"
No one heard anything from Priss for the next two weeks. A few boomers went rogue. We handled them without Priss reasonably well, but I couldn't shake the feeling of expectation, the feeling that maybe next time Priss would be there. And when she wasn't there, I would feel all empty and sad inside. Nigel asked if he was to dump Priss's suit, but Sylia told him to keep it on stand by. But at this point, I was starting to think Priss was not coming back.
Plus there was Sylia. She went out with us every time a boomer went rogue. I'm not quite sure why, but something about Sylia's current physique or brain scans made it unsafe for her to be out in her hardsuit. Towards the end of the second week, Sylia was starting to look exhausted. Linna and I came to the informed, democratic decision that Priss had to be won back at all costs.
Seeing as how both me and Sylia had failed to turn Priss around, Linna decided that she should give it a try. She was the most sociable among us, and there for the most reasonable. Initially, we thought the hard part would be finding Priss, but Mackey filled us in that the one place we could always be sure to find Priss was Nigel's garage, Linna figured she'd go there one day after work and try to reason with our favorite loner. I wanted to know what was going on at all times when Linna eventually caught up with Priss, but I was afraid to go there and listen in myself because I was afraid that Priss would kick my ass. Instead, we let Sylia in on our little plan and she gave us a two-way radio that I could use to listen on them with.
One dry, Tuesday evening, Priss, sure as falling rain, went to Nigel's for a check up, and Linna was there waiting, with a lame excuse that she needed her scooter fixed. I was on a bus half way across town listening to them while I planned to go to a movie.
"Why'd you hit Sylia a few nights ago?" Linna asked.
"Is it important?"
"I'd like to know."
"I was mad. I was blowing off steam."
"Not satisfied with destroying Sylia's dress?"
"I was mad at Nene. I was trying to do the mature adult thing, which would be to leave. Sylia got in my way and had other ideas. She brought the fat lip on herself. If only she had just let me jerk off, you know?"
"I see."
"Good. As long as someone sees." They talked for a little while more about other stuff, work, careers, goals, etc.
"Don't you think this has gone on long enough?" Linna eventually asked, attacking the root of all our discomfort.
"What has?"
"I think we're beyond sick, mind taunting games at this point. I know you're mad at Nene for what she did, but you're really just dragging this thing out with your little strike here-"
"Who says I'm dragging it out?"
"We do."
"Am I doing anything in particular to drag it out?"
"You've been ignoring the call to arms, so we generally see that as just dragging it out."
"I'm on vacation."
Around this point, Linna snapped.
"Damn it Priss, I'm on your side here, I'm rooting for you! But losing a bet and having a joke played on you is no reason to turn yourself into public enemy number one!"
Whatever was said next, I didn't hear it because the bus began to rock towards the left, which prompted people to scream. I looked over my shoulder and I saw a rogue boomer out the window. I joined in on the screaming. After a couple of minutes of rocking, the bus was eventually tipped over. Glass was shattered as the bus fell and as people fell on top of each other. I fell on my head, and I would have blacked out it I hadn't put my hands on my crown. Instead of being knocked out cold, I got glass jammed in my fingers. It hurt, but at the moment, I was too terrified to really care. I saw the boomer tearing its way through the bus like it was some kind of can.
Everyone was running around like a bunch of scared chickens, trying to get out through the emergency exit and through the shattered windows, but not getting out because there were too many of them piling up at one place. This boomer looked like it had been one of the cleaning boomers assigned to the streets, but after having gone rogue, it looked like a crab.
The boomer turned towards the right to get at the people who were trying to escape through the emergency exit. I took advantage of the chance to escape by going out through the hole the boomer had made for itself. After escaping the bus, I noticed that the boomer was coming after me. Not the kind of admiration I wanted. I started running away for all I was worth. I felt like I was running away from Priss again, only it worse, 'cause with Priss, you felt like maybe you would live, where as with the boomer, there was no such reassurance.
People started hiding and ducking into little restaurants and shops as they saw me running away from the boomer. If only one of them would have opened back up a door for me. Along the way, I tripped on a glass bottle that someone had carelessly discarded. I looked over my shoulder, and saw the boomer was gaining ground on me. I tried to scramble to my feet, but I was so terrified that even the simplest and most required thoughts were impeded.
Amidst my scrambling, I heard a shot ricochet off the boomer. I looked to my right and guess who had come to my rescue. Leon McNichol and Daley Wong of the AD Police, Leon wielding his revolver, Daley wielding one of the standard machine guns. Why Leon never bothered to get himself a decent gun I never figured out, but at the moment, I was happy to see someone there who had at least some chance of dealing with the creature. "Leon? Daley? Where'd you come from?"
"Never mind that, Nene! Just get out of here!" Leon shouted.
"We'll hold it off! Go!" Daley encouraged.
I did what they told me to do. I finally got to my feet and I started to run away. All the doors along the street were still closed, so I ran into an alley and hid behind a dumpster, where I started to cry to relieve all the stress and excitement that had ensued in the previous minutes. I listened in as bullets bounced off metal and as a very big, metal creature jumped from the car to car, wrecking the streets of Tokyo.
I heard the boomer's inhuman roar. Then I heard it get louder. A sign that it was getting closer. I stuck my head out from behind the dumpster to see if it was there yet, and saw nothing. I reclined behind the dumpster and breathed a sigh of relief. Then the roar got louder. I stuck my head out and again I saw nothing. I reclined. The roar was louder and closer than ever. Being as stupid as I was then, I stuck my head out and saw the boomer at the opening of the alleyway. So third time really is the charm. I reclined once again, huddling to one corner, but it was too late. I could hear the boomer coming down the alley at me like a cat ready to pounce on a mouse. I could feel the boomer was just a few feet away from me, and I knew, I thought, it was the end. I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable.
But the inevitable never came. I heard boomer roar in pain and I heard the sound of something, someone, pounding into it with fists, killing it. After hearing an small explosion within the boomer's core, I opened my eyes and saw the person who had killed the boomer. It was Priss. Priss in her hard suit to be exact.
"Nene, you okay?" she asked, looking away from the boomer at me.
"Oh my God, Priss!" I screamed in joy and relief, lunging at her feet, kissing the armored gauntlets which contained knuckle bombs. Or toe bombs, depending on how you looked at it. "Oh God, thank you! Thank you! Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" I screamed between kissing her feet. The hard suit feet were dirty as Hell, but the time, I was so ecstatically happy that I really didn't care. "Oh God, I'm sorry!"
"Sorry for what?"
"I'm sorry that I tried to give Leon your photos! I must have been high or something! I didn't mean to hurt your feelings! I'm so sorry! I'll never do it again! I promise! From now on, I'll do anything you want, no matter how illicit! If you need anything done, if you need something brought into your possession, I'm your person! Just name it, it'll be done! It'll be yours! I'll-"
"Uh, Nene."
"Yeah?"
"That's all nice, but you can stop groveling now. The cops are coming."
"Oh, okay." I sat up and away from Priss's feet and watched her jump up into the sky and out of sight. I looked at the opening of the alley, and there was Leon and Daley, with the sound of ADP tanks pulling in, too late as usual.
"You alright, kid?" Leon yelled. "Did you destroy the boomer all by yourself? I'm very proud of you." Leon and Daley started to applaud. I knew they were ragging on me, but I was alive and happy to be alive, and even happier because Priss was back, so I didn't really care.
After a few days, things went back to normal. Finally. Priss forgave and forgot, Sylia forgave and forgot, and while we were never one big happy family, at least we were back on fair working terms. I'll never forget the very next day at work when Priss called. She asked if I needed a lift to Sylia's place. I was happy beyond words.