Fan Fiction

BGC: Two Knights - part 2: "Onene Romanova"

Written by W.S.

rev 1.1
May 28th - June 6th, 2000

"Ouch!" Priss exclaimed, as Nene pulled another thorn from her thigh. The duo had just returned from a stroll in the park - not for leisure of course, but rather to meet Leon. None of them did a lot of walking in parks, Priss because she didn't like them ("Animals? Those annoying things which get stuck in the wheels of my bike whenever I ride it outside the city?"), Nene because she wasn't exactly an outdoors person, but preferred to sit in front of her computer during her spare time. Anyway, their walk and subsequent talk with Leon (who had given them some well-needed information on Genom, not to mention some well-needed dosh) had gone well, but on the way back Nene, cheery as always had suggested they stop for some food. Following the purchase of two hot dogs, they had searched for a place to sit and found one in the form of a wooden bench, beautifully positioned, overlooking a pond. Priss had sat down first, not noticing the hedgehog that was already there, resting comfortably. Priss had not noticed the animal's presence, but it had noticed hers and had quickly curled up in defense, effectively perforating Priss' butt as she sat down on it. Miraculously, the 'hog had survived, and left in a hurry. Priss and Nene had left as well - Nene, caring as always, had offered to help Priss remove the thorns and Priss had accepted, as the thought of baring her butt to some cheap male doctor wasn't very appealing to her - so now Priss was lying on her stomach in her bed, while Nene did her best to patch her up. "Ouch!" Priss said again, as Nene removed yet another of the centimeter-long needles. "Last one, I think" Nene said. "Thanks..." Priss grunted sourly. She then sat up, nodded in approval, and smiled a little. "I think you got them all out. God knows what I'd do without you, Nene" she said, now sounding quite a bit happier. Nene laughed. "See, Priss, that's why you need me! If I weren't around, who'd then have the exquisite honor of pulling hedgehog thorns out of your ass? Leon, perhaps?" The very thought of Leon having his hands anywhere near her private parts made Priss shudder. Noticing Priss' now deteriorating mood, Nene quickly changed the subject: "So, hm, what do you think about what Leon-chan told us?" she asked casually. "Sounds way too much like easy money ... might be a trap. Perhaps someone is feeding Leon false information. Or, he's decided to start licking Genom's ass by betraying us" Priss, back to her usual=sour mood, replied. Nene frowned. The data on Genom's nuclear weapons research that they'd liberated from its mainframe the week before had reached the press alright, but due to pressure from Genom most of the major papers had never actually published it, and so the majority of the population was still happily unaware of Genom's evilness. Of course, Nene had taken the precaution of deleting the data after she'd copied it, so Genom's nuclear weapons research had suffered a setback, which was kind of a good thing all by itself. Nene thought about this for a few seconds. "I don't think Leon-chan would do that!" she then said. "No, neither do I" Priss admitted. "But you can't trust anybody these days." Already knowing how Nene would respond, she quickly added: "Apart from you, of course." Nene smiled and leaned back into the bed, her T-shirt getting pulled up as she stretched back, revealing part of her untanned belly. She yawned and said, "I don't feel like cooking anything tonight. Wanna order some pizza?" Priss nodded, grabbed the cordless phone and hit one of the speed dials. "Tony! It's Priss ... yeah, two pizzas, send someone over here with them will ya? .. Ok thanks .. I'll have the usual .. and so will Nene .. but put a little less cheese on it this time..." (she shot an implying glare at Nene's exposed abdomen) "I think the little one's put on some weight.." Priss almost dodged the pillow.

The following morning - a friday as it happened - Nene sat at work, more precisely in front of one of the police's computer terminals. She and Priss had decided to take the assignment that Leon had given them the day before, and it was fairly straight-forward: Genom was getting a piece of very deadly technology delivered, something Leon's organization didn't want them to have. Take one delivery truck, place some C4 on a timer, make sure the traffic lights put the truck on top of the bomb at the right time, and voila, no more delivery truck. Easy enough, assuming no foul play was involved. Which, of course, there probably was. Therefore, Nene was searching all restricted and unrestricted Genom databases that she could access remotely for any information about the delivery, in the hopes that something other than what Leon had told them would be revealed. Much to Nene's (and Priss' when she found out about it) chagrin, no such information seemed to exist. Therefore, the same afternoon, Priss and Nene were down in the sewers, after having previously scouted out a manhole just before an intersection which the delivery truck would have to pass. "How far?" Priss asked. "It's the next one, actually" Nene replied almost instantly, her eyes fixed on the map being displayed on the small LCD of her minicomp. A few steps later, Priss and Nene stood beneath the manhole, and Priss hauled an explosive device the size of a phonebook out of her backpack. "This sucker's gonna blow big" she explained to Nene, "but mostly upwards. If the lid on this manhole doesn't put a good size dent in that truck when it blows off, the C4 beneath it sure will." Nene nodded and began to set the detonator. She pressed a button and the detonator gave off a high-pitched beep. "Seems to be working fine" she said, carefully setting the timer. Priss nodded and proceeded back along the tunnel. She walked on for about fourty metres before she realized that Nene wasn't behind her. She looked over her sholder; Nene was still working the controls on the bomb. "Nene, Haiaku!" Priss shouted impatiently. "Chotto matte!" Nene shouted back. "I've just got to check this once more .." "Be quick about it! Make sure that thing won't explode ahead of schedule" Priss said, leaning against the tunnel wall as she waited. Nene swallowed sharply. The truck wasn't due to arrive until two in the morning, but now, during the late afternoon, the streets above them were filled with civilian cars and tourist buses, and the streets were crowded with people. If the bomb went off too soon, probably nearly one hundred innocent humans would be killed or injured. Thinking about this as she worked, Nene quickly finished the final checks and locked the access port. She then ran through the tunnel to catch up with Priss. "She cares way too much about other people for her own good" Priss thought as they made their way back. "a very loveable quality, only slightly unsuitable for a mercenary."

A couple of hours later, back at the apartment, Nene sat quietly in a corner of the sofa, reading a worn-out comic book. The cover featured an angry-looking woman, wearing very little, screaming into a microphone. Below her in the picture was a white-haired man who looked like he'd been through hell twice. "Damn, these Knight Sabers are cool..." Nene said out loud. "Especially the red one ... ne, Priss?" She looked up from the comic to see Priss pacing back and forth on the floor - this could only mean one thing: Priss was worried. Priss was hardly ever worried, it just wasn't in her nature to be worried, and even less so to show her uneasiness in such an obvious way. This was a bad thing, Nene concluded, as whatever Priss was worried about had to be something really bad, or else she wouldn't be worried in the first place. "Priss, you're going to make a hole in the carpet if you keep pacing like that" Nene said, attempting to find out what was on Priss' mind. Priss stopped dead in her tracks, turned to look at Nene with a blank stare, then looked around in the room disorientedly, as if she hadn't realized what she had been doing. She then looked at Nene again, who was now staring at her, looking almost scared. "Nene, I'm alright..." Priss said, apparently attempting to sound calm but not doing very well. "I was just a bit preoccupied." "What is it that's bothering you?" Nene asked, seeing straight through Priss' façade and now even more worried than before. "It's ... this mission ... no, it's just that ... never mind .. but" Priss spoke incoherently, as if she either couldn't or wouldn't say anything. Nene sighed. Psychology had never been her strong suit, she preferred straight approaches to personal problems. "Priss, you're way too tense..." Nene started, only to be met by a cold look from Priss, who was now returning to her old - however still worried - self. Nene closed her comic book, not easily discouraged. "Come over here" she said, leaning back in the couch, "I'll help you relax a little." Priss reluctantly walked over to Nene and sat down - had it been a man who had offered to 'help her relax', she would probably have slapped him. But Nene was different, very different indeed. Priss sat down, and Nene crouched up behind her. She then began gently massaging Priss' neck. "Nene ..." Priss was going to protest, or at least say something, but she couldn't - Nene's soft massage was sending waves of pleasure through her aching body that were too powerful to ignore. "Ooooh ... NE-ne .." Priss purred. "Where did you learn to DO this?" "Naoko taught me during the night shift last week" Nene cooed into Priss' ear. "Feels good, doesn't it?" Priss was just about to ask what else Nene had learned during her long night shifts but thought twice about it and decided not to. "Feeling better now?" Nene asked, and Priss nodded. She then stood up, moreso because her mind demanded it than because her body wanted to. If she'd been given a choice she'd want to stay in that feeling forever - she'd have to ask Nene for another massage when they got back, she thought to herself. "I'll go and take a quick shower" Priss said, back to her usual self, or trying to be, anyway. "We're off in one hour."

"It's on it's way now" Nene said over the radio. Priss, lying on her stomach on top of a building overlooking the intersection, gave Nene (who was sitting in an office across the street, looking down through a window) a quick thumbs-up and grabbed the remote timer, currently at 80 seconds and counting. She had considered letting Nene have it, but had ultimately decided to carry it herself, leaving Nene to handle the traffic lights, and providing herself with front-row seats to the countdown. Nene, having broken into the office building all by herself, had used the computer in the office she was sitting in, not to mention the company's hefty high-bandwith internet connection, to hack into the traffic lights in the intersection below. She was also tracking the truck's movements by satellite - Genom's satellites tracked all of their vehicles and Nene knew the encryption algorithms by heart. "0,4 kilometers away" she whispered over the radio. "Right on time .. you should be able to see it soon". True enough, Priss' eyes were now locked on the black truck, driving slowly down the street. "Be ready with the traffic lights" she said. "Make sure you give him enough time to stop before..." Priss was broken off mid-sentence by an eardrum-shattering scream from Nene. "Nene, are you alright?" Priss yelled back, and then looked towards the window. Nene stood, still alone in the office, with her hands and face pressed against the window, looking very distressed indeed. "PRISS!!" Nene screamed again. "I was just going to ... but then they were already ... there's someone down there!!" Priss, not quite understanding what Nene meant, looked down at the street, where the truck was only about twenty metres from the intersection. The streetlight turned yellow, then red - but not due to Nene. A woman with dark hair, looking to be in her late twenties, was standing on the side of the road waiting to cross. The truck slowed down to a halt, right on top of the manhole in which Priss and Nene had planted the bomb. The woman started to make her way across the street. "No...!!" Nene shouted into Priss' ear. "Please tell me she's got time enough to get clear!" A thousand thoughts raced through Priss' head. The timer was at fifteen seconds, there was no way she'd get away in time, possibly if she ran but she wasn't running. 10 seconds. The woman was halfway across the street. Priss looked at the timer. There had to be a way to modify it to cancel the countdown ... if only Nene had been there, she'd fix it in a jiffy ... but Nene was on the other side of the street, and in no condition to do anything but scream into the radio. 3 seconds... Priss closed her eyes. <Bip .. bip .. bip .. beep>

Nene was in a state of extreme panic as the bomb went off. The explosion was enormous, sending the truck nearly thirty metres up in the air. It flipped over and landed on its front, exploding again on impact. There was such a big cloud of fire and dust that Nene could not make out anything clearly, although her eyes were searching frantically for the woman. She finally caught sight of her - she had been thrown a few metres by the explosion and was lying on the pavement, face-down. The radio was silent, and Nene could no longer see Priss on the rooftop across the street. Desperate to get out, she practically threw herself out the door, not bothering to turn anything off, and sprinted down the corridor and stairs to the ground level. Priss was already standing over the woman, who appeared to be in less than perfect shape. "We've got to get out of here!" Priss shouted as she saw Nene running towards her. Not bothering to ask how Priss had come down from the roof so quickly, Nene knelt down and turned the woman around. She wasn't breathing. "Don't die, damn you!" Nene shouted, tears streaming down her face. Priss, however, had other things on her mind - she could hear the tell-tale engine sounds of cars approaching, and grabbed the crying Nene by the arm, pulling her away from the woman. "Nene!!" Priss screamed. "They're coming!!" Nene heard the approaching cars and stopped struggling - both Nene and Priss were already running when two black BMW's rounded a corner, headlights full-on. Nene and Priss found themselves in a sea of light, clearly visible against the shiny metal exteriors of the buildings around them. The cars had to circumnavigate the burning wreck, giving Priss and Nene just enough time to get on the motorbike, and at a speed far beyond what was normally allowed they fled on the bike, Genom cars in pursuit. Nene looked back and saw one of the windows lowering, and a man carrying a submachinegun leaned out and opened fire. Priss made a sharp turn onto a smaller street, nearly crashing the bike into the pavement as she did so. The cars, unable to perform the same manuever, stopped and two other men jumped out and began firing at Nene and Priss, who were speeding down the narrow street, desperate to get away. "Ow, FUCK!!!" Priss screamed as a bullet hit her helmet. She nearly crashed the bike but managed to get it back on course in the last second. After what seemed like hours, but was in reality only seconds, they reached a turnoff. Escaping from the shooters' line of sight, they drove up onto the highway.

03:39

03:40

03:41

Nene couldn't sleep, although she was tired as hell. Good thing she didn't have to go to work next day, because nothing less than the end of the world would wake her up too early, assuming she'd be able to go to sleep at all. Now, she was reading the digits off her beside digital alarm clock, possibly hoping that she'd bore herself to sleep. Her covers had gotten warm and sweaty, and her pillow was in just as bad a condition, wet from her tears. Frustrated, she stood up and walked over to the window - the white pyjamas she wore was slightly see-through in the moonlight but at four in the morning, it didn't really matter. Not feeling very sedated by the full moon, she walked through the kitchen to Priss' room, where Priss was in bed in what seemed like a condition very similar to Nene's. "Can't sleep?" she said in a tired voice. "Mhm" Nene replied, just as tiredly. "Neither can I" Priss said, stating the obvious. Nene walked to the window. Priss' window was at a different angle from Nene's, letting more of the moonlight in. Nene admired the view for a short while (unknowingly giving Priss an eyeful) and then sat down on the bed. Priss was still lying on her back, observing Nene, not having enough energy to do anything else, except possibly talk, if she'd had anything to say. Finally Nene broke the silence: "Promise... Promise me we'll never do anything like that again" she said. Priss sighed. If they were to start not accepting jobs just because someone might get killed ... the amount of jobs they'd get would be equal to a large number multiplied by zero. "Nene ... stuff like this happens in our line of work. Not much to do 'bout it. It's not like it's the first time, either." Nene nodded and sighed deeply. She could remember the first time it had happened all to vividly - back then she'd nearly quit the team but Priss had talked her out of it, basically by telling her what a wuss she'd be if she left. Then, she'd been shocked by Priss' apparent lack of emotional distress - it had only been their second job - but now she was getting used to it. As if she'd heard Nene's thoughts, Priss grabbed her by the shoulders. "Hey ... I'm not completely without emotion, if that's what you think" she said semi-sharply. "Prove it" Nene demanded. Priss looked at her for a few seconds. She knew of just the way ... but she wasn't sure if it was what Nene had in mind. "Ah, what the fuck" she thought to herself, "she was the one who asked me...". "Well?" Nene said, fed up with waiting for Priss' slow mind to finish thinking. Priss looked at her and smiled a devillish smile. "Close your eyes" she commanded, and Nene obeyed, knowing what Priss was about to do but not about to stop her.

Priss firmed her grip on Nene's shoulders and pulled herself up to a sitting position. She put her hand around Nene's neck, allowing it to sink into her warm, silky hair. Slowly she moved closer to Nene, until their faces were only a centimeter apart... Nene noticed this, Priss could feel her body tensing beneath her hands. Priss was just about to go the rest of the way, finally fulfill this newborn desire, when she suddenly felt something else, some old, near-forgotten moral block deep down in her mind that told her this just wasn't right. She thought of Nene's eyes - those big, blue (or were they green?) eyes ... so full of that innocence that made her care about total strangers, and was the source of so many other beautiful things about Nene ... And here she was about to take some of that innocence away, just to satisfy herself. Did Nene even feel the same way? She wasn't exactly resisting...? Would this mean ... Priss' thoughts were blown away like the walls from a building exploding from the impact of a nuclear warhead as she felt the touch of Nene's lips on her own. The long, deep kiss that followed sent sparks to every part of Priss' exhausted body. Nene then put her mouth to Priss' ear and whispered, noticeably happy "Sorry, but I just couldn't wait any longer. I believe you, alright? Now you need your rest." Without another word, she stood up, straightened her pyjamas top and walked out of the room. Priss sat motionless for several minutes, not thinking but only existing - like the bird which sees its own image in a mirror, Priss' mind was one big emotional conflict, which left her unable to do anything until it finally ceased and the intense fatigue took over again. She fell back down on her back, so tired both mentally and physically not even an earthquake, jumbo sized, would have kept her from falling asleep.

"Wow..." Sylia Stingray said to herself as she put down her binoculars. "Really not what I expected... This could prove more interesting than I thought."