Games Without Frontiers
By LadyRivka
Chapter 8: 01 vs. 05 (last chapter!)
Becky woke with a start. Today would be the day from hell, the day where she had to demonstrate how much she loved her opponent by virulently hating him. Deactivating his body and sending his mind home, where it belonged. And there was the little fact that she didn't want to die…
From the balcony she watched 17 walk casually into the ring, racket in hand. He seemed to be teasing her, torturing her almost, with the way he walked and the way his hair moved around in the stadium's cool artificial breeze. All she could do was stare.
Finally, she got up the nerve to move her right foot, and then her left, walking again towards her chambers to get her racket. She then climbed down the stairs to the arena, where a madding crowd cheered for her, probably because she had the number 05 on her uniform.
She stared into his eerily silver-blue eyes, afraid and searching for the answer to this dilemma. He noticed she was staring at him and gave her a trademark smirk, as if to say, "Bring it on!" Becky's heart fluttered and her breathing became heavy, knowing there was a possibility she would die and that Juunanagou would stay in her dimension and screw things up royally.
"You ready?" he smirked.
"Hell yes!" she replied as both walked into the hyperspace cube.
The robotic voice sounded "GO" as the energy-ball was dropped from the "ceiling". Becky made the first attempt to get the ball into the goal, but Juunana put up excellent defense, as he did in the previous matches. But he made a grave error when one of his shots went flying too far…
Becky retrieved the energy-ball, and, when Juunana was off-guard, threw it into the goal. One point…it'd be difficult to get the other five. This she knew; but she had to do it. No emotions getting in the way. Just restoring order to the universe.
She repeated the tactic for points two and three, but her opponent caught on, and put up much better defense. He then whizzed over her head, "slam-dunking" the ball into the goal.
Three to one.
As the ball was hurled yet again to her side of the court, Becky got control of it. She performed the same maneuver as 17 had, not once, but three times…
She had won. Six to one. She would be very sad to see him go, but it was necessary…
The audience yelled "EX-PLODE! EX-PLODE!" as the judges pushed the button that made Juunanagou disappear…
Tears ran down Becky's cheeks. Maybe she should have died instead…
Juunanagou awoke, hearing the loud sobs of his daughter from inside the cabin. He picked up his rifle and went in.
"Da-Da-Daddy!" yelled the little android girl.
"I'm here, C-Ko, I was just asleep," he muttered. "Mommy will be home soon. Get washed up."
" M'kay," she said as she headed for the bathroom.
Meanwhile, back at the space station…
Becky was still crying, her face in her lap.
"It's okay," assured Zyzyx.
"What can I do to redeem myself?" Becky wailed.
"There's always next year…hopefully, no virus will show up."
"Next year…" She breathed a little easier. "Will you give me the Slaughterhouse-Five?"
"We'll talk about it when the time is right. Like… maybe your sixteenth birthday?"
"WHAAAAT? I have to WAIT that long?"
She angrily stormed off into her quarters, knowing she would never, EVER get what she wanted.
FIN
