Disclaimer: I don't own Iria (though I wouldn't mind it….) and I'm not making any money off this. (If I was, do you think you'd see this disclaimer?) The only thing I own here is this story and Shiv. She's mine, do you hear me? Mine! *laughs nervously* Okay…on with the show…..
Rating: PG-13 - language
A Knife in the Coat
Part 3: Skeet
Shiv raised the blaster rifle to her shoulder and pulled the trigger. The sound of the shot echoed across the empty firing range. She smiled slightly, noting the neat hole in the center of the target. Pressing down on the pedal beside her foot, Shiv watched as an orange skeet disk shot through the air. It didn't make it very far before it was falling to the earth as orange dust. She smiled again.
"Nice shooting."
Shiv's lip curled in a half-snarl. "I thought it was pretty clear I want to be alone."
Fujikuro shrugged as he walked up beside her. "I've always been the type you've had to spell it out for."
Shiv spun around and pressed the barrel of the rifle against his chest. "G. O. A. W. A. Y. F. U. J. I." She smiled. "How's that for you?"
Fujikuro looked down at the barrel, eyes wide. "I thought you'd like to keep me around, seeing as how I apologized to Iria."
Shiv raised an eyebrow and turned around. "True," she murmured, stomping on the pedal. Another skeet disk gone. "You know, it looked like you were proposing to her back there."
Fujikuro's cheeks seemed redder. Maybe it was the sunset. Maybe not.
"You came here for something," Shiv continued, blasting another skeet disk. "What."
"To talk to you."
"That's not all. Spit it out, Fuji." Scratch disk four.
"Why didn't you tell her the rest? About Gren, I mean."
"Would you have told her?"
Silence.
"I thought not."
"It's not a question of if I would have told her. Why didn't you?"
"Because I didn't think it was the right time."
"When will the time get any better?"
"When I say it will, damn it." Disks five and six are gone.
"It wasn't anything major. It was a harmless-"
"Harmless to you, maybe. You're not the one he did it to."
"Why is it all so touchy with you all of a sudden?"
"It just is……Come on. It was a bit of a shock, you know? Why the hell didn't you tell me she was Gren's 'little sister'?"
"Because I was afraid of something like this. I didn't think it would come up."
"There's the intelligent statement of the year." Seven, eight, and nine are no longer among us.
"Okay, it was shitty planning. Why can't you just let it go?"
"I don't let go of things well. Please, Fuji. You know the thing I let go of the easiest is a grenade."
"Very true."
"Is there anything else you have to say?"
"Not really. You mind if I watch you shoot?"
"Not really." Disk ten is gone.
The last light of the setting sun was slowly fading away and the automatic lamps at the range were kicking in. Iria walked gingerly up behind Shiv. The woman was damn good with a blaster rifle, and the last thing Iria wanted was a bolt in the chest because she startled her.
"You can stop sneaking now. I know you're there," Shiv called without turning around.
Iria relaxed. "Sorry, just didn't want to startle you."
"How could you startle me when I heard your creeper well before I heard you?"
Iria couldn't think of anything to say. Then, it came to her. "Where's Fujikuro?"
"He left a little while ago. But you didn't come here about him, did you." There was no question in the other woman's tone.
"You're right." Iria paused. "I…I want to know what happened between you and Gren. Okay, so he wasn't my real brother, but he was all I had for one. What happened between the two of you that hurt you so bad?"
Shiv smiled wanly. "You know, I think it hurt me more than him? I was better friends with Gren than I told you. He was nice, and I cared a lot about the guy, but I wasn't in love with him. Thing is….he was in love with me. I didn't know it at first. Then one night, we were out walking somewhere, I don't remember where Jiko was, and he tells me how he feels. I was….in total shock. I explained to him, rather poorly, looking back on it, how I felt about him, and it was like I'd shot him. He just got this funny look on his face, mumbled something, and ran off before I could stop him. We still kept being friends, but…it never quite went back to being the way it was before. I've never quite forgiven myself for what I said that night. I don't remember what it was, but I know it was wrong."
She looked off into the darkness, and, as though laying eyes on an old fried, smiled. Slowly, almost reluctantly, she turned back to Iria. "We'd better be getting back. It's getting late."
"You want a ride in the creeper?", Iria offered.
Shiv waved her off. "Thanks, but I'll use my ship."
"Your ship?" Iria raised an eyebrow.
Shiv grinned. "You wanna see it?"
Iria nodded enthusiastically and Shiv laughed. "Okay, okay. This way."
They walked out of the range and over to a large black shape in the darkness. Shiv pushed up her coat sleeve and pressed a button on her wristband. "Voice authorization required," chirped an overly pleasant female voice.
"Shiv," the woman said. "Turn on the damn exterior lights!"
There was a soft whirring sound, then the voice said, "99% match confirmed, allowing for fluctuations due to emotion and background noise. Processing request."
Shiv grinned again. "Ain't she great? Maybe we should hook her up with Bob. What do you think?"
Iria laughed. "I'm sure he'd love it."
Before she could say more, the lights clicked on. Iria gasped. The craft was sleeker than anything she'd ever laid eyes on, a perfect bullet shape for maximum speed. She could just make out faint lines on the bulkheads, signs of hidden doors for hidden weapons. From nose to deadly pointed tail, the whole thing was a gorgeous black-silver that seemed positively ethereal in the moonlight.
"Listen, you want to ride with me?", Shiv offered. "I can tow your creeper and you can take the co-pilot seat. What do you say?"
Iria thought for a moment, then nodded. Shiv smiled. "Hop in and buckle up tight. We're going pretty fast."
The two women leapt into their respective seats and strapped in. Shiv pressed several more buttons on her wristband. "Daine, talk to creeper, owner name: Iria. Engage tow program."
"Processing request," chirped the computer.
While Daine complied, Iria couldn't help but ask, "How'd she get the name 'Daine"?"
"Digital, analytical, intelligent, neural entity," Shiv recited. "Programmed her myself. She can be a pain the ass, but comes in more handy than you might think. Come on, let's head back. Did I mention hang on?"
Shiv slammed the throttle forward, pressing Iria into the back of the seat. Iria sent a frightened glance in Shiv's direction as she navigated tight curves with reckless abandon. Noting Iria's shock, Shiv threw back her head and laughed.
"Don't worry, kid," she assured. "I grew up here. I know this place like the back of my hand…..Except for that!!"
She stomped the brakes to the floor as she spotted an entire row of Tedon Tippidai robotic guards blocking their path.
"What the hell are you doing here?", Shiv yelled, standing up in her seat.
"You are in violation of the speed limit," the robot captain said in a tinny voice. "We will have to extract from either your person or your account 700 kem."
Shiv let loose the most vile oath Iria had ever heard. "700 kem?!? Where the hell do you think we are?! A residential neighborhood?!? We're in the middle of a God-damned No Man's Land and you want 700 kem for speeding?!?! I don't think so, you robotic son of a bitch! You can have two things. First, your mother was a toaster oven! And second, you can have 700 rounds!!"
Drawing the blaster rifle, she squeezed hard on the trigger and swung it in a wide arc. A large gap opened in the robot lines and Shiv took the opportunity. "Daine, max thrust! Full defensive countermeasures!"
She dropped with practiced ease back into her seat as the shields came up. Strapping back in, she typed frantically on the console. "Daine, open exterior doors. We've got company and I'd like to introduce them to Ship's weaponry."
"Processing," Daine chirped and Iria raised an eyebrow.
"Ship?"
Shiv grinned sheepishly. "I couldn't come up with a decent name for the damn thing, so I settled for Ship. Suits her, neh?" Suddenly, she turned back to the console. "Daine, weapons lock. Multiple targets. I want full capacity shots going out. Anything less and I want to know what we can sacrifice to get the weapons back up."
"Processing……Full capacity shots available for the next two minutes. After that systems will need to be sacrificed in order to maintain."
Shiv nodded. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. 'Till then, I'm gonna try and make it back in two minutes."
"You're gonna do what?!?!", Iria shrieked, gripping the arms of her seat tightly.
"You heard me," Shiv said through clenched teeth. "Cross your fingers, kid." With that, she shoved the throttle forward and Iria shouted something that was lost in the roar of the engines.
Fujikuro paced in front of the computer console. "Where the hell are those two?!?!", he snarled. "If they don't show up in the next minute, I'm going-"
The door slammed open. "No need," Shiv growled from the doorway.
She and Iria stood there, looking scared, bedraggled, and considerably worse for wear. "Gentlemen," Shiv grinned wickedly, "since Tedon Tippidai wants to see us so badly, why don't we pay them a little visit?"
******
Hehe, scratch part 3. BTW, anyone who can tell me where I really got the name "Daine" from wins something swell. (Anyone but you, Mara-chan. You all ready know. *grins*)
Well, see ya in part 4!
*Kat-chan out* ^_^ \/
PS - First Iria story on FF.net? Check the publication dates....
Rating: PG-13 - language
A Knife in the Coat
Part 3: Skeet
Shiv raised the blaster rifle to her shoulder and pulled the trigger. The sound of the shot echoed across the empty firing range. She smiled slightly, noting the neat hole in the center of the target. Pressing down on the pedal beside her foot, Shiv watched as an orange skeet disk shot through the air. It didn't make it very far before it was falling to the earth as orange dust. She smiled again.
"Nice shooting."
Shiv's lip curled in a half-snarl. "I thought it was pretty clear I want to be alone."
Fujikuro shrugged as he walked up beside her. "I've always been the type you've had to spell it out for."
Shiv spun around and pressed the barrel of the rifle against his chest. "G. O. A. W. A. Y. F. U. J. I." She smiled. "How's that for you?"
Fujikuro looked down at the barrel, eyes wide. "I thought you'd like to keep me around, seeing as how I apologized to Iria."
Shiv raised an eyebrow and turned around. "True," she murmured, stomping on the pedal. Another skeet disk gone. "You know, it looked like you were proposing to her back there."
Fujikuro's cheeks seemed redder. Maybe it was the sunset. Maybe not.
"You came here for something," Shiv continued, blasting another skeet disk. "What."
"To talk to you."
"That's not all. Spit it out, Fuji." Scratch disk four.
"Why didn't you tell her the rest? About Gren, I mean."
"Would you have told her?"
Silence.
"I thought not."
"It's not a question of if I would have told her. Why didn't you?"
"Because I didn't think it was the right time."
"When will the time get any better?"
"When I say it will, damn it." Disks five and six are gone.
"It wasn't anything major. It was a harmless-"
"Harmless to you, maybe. You're not the one he did it to."
"Why is it all so touchy with you all of a sudden?"
"It just is……Come on. It was a bit of a shock, you know? Why the hell didn't you tell me she was Gren's 'little sister'?"
"Because I was afraid of something like this. I didn't think it would come up."
"There's the intelligent statement of the year." Seven, eight, and nine are no longer among us.
"Okay, it was shitty planning. Why can't you just let it go?"
"I don't let go of things well. Please, Fuji. You know the thing I let go of the easiest is a grenade."
"Very true."
"Is there anything else you have to say?"
"Not really. You mind if I watch you shoot?"
"Not really." Disk ten is gone.
The last light of the setting sun was slowly fading away and the automatic lamps at the range were kicking in. Iria walked gingerly up behind Shiv. The woman was damn good with a blaster rifle, and the last thing Iria wanted was a bolt in the chest because she startled her.
"You can stop sneaking now. I know you're there," Shiv called without turning around.
Iria relaxed. "Sorry, just didn't want to startle you."
"How could you startle me when I heard your creeper well before I heard you?"
Iria couldn't think of anything to say. Then, it came to her. "Where's Fujikuro?"
"He left a little while ago. But you didn't come here about him, did you." There was no question in the other woman's tone.
"You're right." Iria paused. "I…I want to know what happened between you and Gren. Okay, so he wasn't my real brother, but he was all I had for one. What happened between the two of you that hurt you so bad?"
Shiv smiled wanly. "You know, I think it hurt me more than him? I was better friends with Gren than I told you. He was nice, and I cared a lot about the guy, but I wasn't in love with him. Thing is….he was in love with me. I didn't know it at first. Then one night, we were out walking somewhere, I don't remember where Jiko was, and he tells me how he feels. I was….in total shock. I explained to him, rather poorly, looking back on it, how I felt about him, and it was like I'd shot him. He just got this funny look on his face, mumbled something, and ran off before I could stop him. We still kept being friends, but…it never quite went back to being the way it was before. I've never quite forgiven myself for what I said that night. I don't remember what it was, but I know it was wrong."
She looked off into the darkness, and, as though laying eyes on an old fried, smiled. Slowly, almost reluctantly, she turned back to Iria. "We'd better be getting back. It's getting late."
"You want a ride in the creeper?", Iria offered.
Shiv waved her off. "Thanks, but I'll use my ship."
"Your ship?" Iria raised an eyebrow.
Shiv grinned. "You wanna see it?"
Iria nodded enthusiastically and Shiv laughed. "Okay, okay. This way."
They walked out of the range and over to a large black shape in the darkness. Shiv pushed up her coat sleeve and pressed a button on her wristband. "Voice authorization required," chirped an overly pleasant female voice.
"Shiv," the woman said. "Turn on the damn exterior lights!"
There was a soft whirring sound, then the voice said, "99% match confirmed, allowing for fluctuations due to emotion and background noise. Processing request."
Shiv grinned again. "Ain't she great? Maybe we should hook her up with Bob. What do you think?"
Iria laughed. "I'm sure he'd love it."
Before she could say more, the lights clicked on. Iria gasped. The craft was sleeker than anything she'd ever laid eyes on, a perfect bullet shape for maximum speed. She could just make out faint lines on the bulkheads, signs of hidden doors for hidden weapons. From nose to deadly pointed tail, the whole thing was a gorgeous black-silver that seemed positively ethereal in the moonlight.
"Listen, you want to ride with me?", Shiv offered. "I can tow your creeper and you can take the co-pilot seat. What do you say?"
Iria thought for a moment, then nodded. Shiv smiled. "Hop in and buckle up tight. We're going pretty fast."
The two women leapt into their respective seats and strapped in. Shiv pressed several more buttons on her wristband. "Daine, talk to creeper, owner name: Iria. Engage tow program."
"Processing request," chirped the computer.
While Daine complied, Iria couldn't help but ask, "How'd she get the name 'Daine"?"
"Digital, analytical, intelligent, neural entity," Shiv recited. "Programmed her myself. She can be a pain the ass, but comes in more handy than you might think. Come on, let's head back. Did I mention hang on?"
Shiv slammed the throttle forward, pressing Iria into the back of the seat. Iria sent a frightened glance in Shiv's direction as she navigated tight curves with reckless abandon. Noting Iria's shock, Shiv threw back her head and laughed.
"Don't worry, kid," she assured. "I grew up here. I know this place like the back of my hand…..Except for that!!"
She stomped the brakes to the floor as she spotted an entire row of Tedon Tippidai robotic guards blocking their path.
"What the hell are you doing here?", Shiv yelled, standing up in her seat.
"You are in violation of the speed limit," the robot captain said in a tinny voice. "We will have to extract from either your person or your account 700 kem."
Shiv let loose the most vile oath Iria had ever heard. "700 kem?!? Where the hell do you think we are?! A residential neighborhood?!? We're in the middle of a God-damned No Man's Land and you want 700 kem for speeding?!?! I don't think so, you robotic son of a bitch! You can have two things. First, your mother was a toaster oven! And second, you can have 700 rounds!!"
Drawing the blaster rifle, she squeezed hard on the trigger and swung it in a wide arc. A large gap opened in the robot lines and Shiv took the opportunity. "Daine, max thrust! Full defensive countermeasures!"
She dropped with practiced ease back into her seat as the shields came up. Strapping back in, she typed frantically on the console. "Daine, open exterior doors. We've got company and I'd like to introduce them to Ship's weaponry."
"Processing," Daine chirped and Iria raised an eyebrow.
"Ship?"
Shiv grinned sheepishly. "I couldn't come up with a decent name for the damn thing, so I settled for Ship. Suits her, neh?" Suddenly, she turned back to the console. "Daine, weapons lock. Multiple targets. I want full capacity shots going out. Anything less and I want to know what we can sacrifice to get the weapons back up."
"Processing……Full capacity shots available for the next two minutes. After that systems will need to be sacrificed in order to maintain."
Shiv nodded. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. 'Till then, I'm gonna try and make it back in two minutes."
"You're gonna do what?!?!", Iria shrieked, gripping the arms of her seat tightly.
"You heard me," Shiv said through clenched teeth. "Cross your fingers, kid." With that, she shoved the throttle forward and Iria shouted something that was lost in the roar of the engines.
Fujikuro paced in front of the computer console. "Where the hell are those two?!?!", he snarled. "If they don't show up in the next minute, I'm going-"
The door slammed open. "No need," Shiv growled from the doorway.
She and Iria stood there, looking scared, bedraggled, and considerably worse for wear. "Gentlemen," Shiv grinned wickedly, "since Tedon Tippidai wants to see us so badly, why don't we pay them a little visit?"
******
Hehe, scratch part 3. BTW, anyone who can tell me where I really got the name "Daine" from wins something swell. (Anyone but you, Mara-chan. You all ready know. *grins*)
Well, see ya in part 4!
*Kat-chan out* ^_^ \/
PS - First Iria story on FF.net? Check the publication dates....