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Realms: Guardians Logs

Background RP - Nikki - Part 1



Life and Death: Nikki's Story

Part 1: The End

It's night in a sprawling three-bedroom apartment. The layout isn't the most efficient and is in an older building, but it is obvious that a lot of effort has gone into it to make it a warm and nice place to live. Music issues from the stereo at a level that isn't much value at listening to, but helps set up a nice background. A young woman, maybe seventeen, walks into the spare bedroom with a couple cans of soda and a plate of snacks. She glances over her older brother's shoulder as she sets them down. The spare bedroom is kind of their playroom and base-of-operations, all rolled into one.

Nikki grins. "Looks like you've almost broken that one..."

Nikki is about five feet tall and has a body on the slim side, yet still in reasonable shape. She probably gets outside a little more than her older brother, judging by her tan. She has shoulder-length auburn hair and engaging green eyes. Presently, she is dressed to relax in a pair of her brother's old gym shorts and a t-shirt.

Alex, Nikki's brother, seems to be intent on what he's doing, his slender fingers flying across the keyboard. His body is noticibly different: his skin is paler, his frame and girth a little bigger, but he's not grossly overweight, and what he has, he wears well. Nikki chuckles briefly at Alex's insistence on still using a character prompt when doing computer work: like all quantum computers, Alex's has a Gibson - a near AI that acts as aide and user-interface - yet Alex insists on using outdated methods in 90% of his work. He says he prefers the control that issuing commands from the keyboard gives rather than talking to the computer. He absently grins as he hears his sister's chuckle and feels her closeness as she peers at what he's doing.

"You bring the munchies?" says Alex.

Nikki playfully swivels Alex's head downwards as she sits at her terminal. "Yeah...set them down practically under your nose, too, if you'll tear your eyes from the interface long enough to look."

Alex chuckles. "Okay, so I'm a little distracted. These files we pinched from Trypticon have this weird encryption...I thought I'd try and figure it out while you were getting food.."

Nikki looks at her screen, which has a special program running on it that is most useful for hackers: it detects if anyone has discovered the hacker's illegal entry and is trying to follow the data trail back to its source. "My tracewatch is still active and says we're clean...I'd feel better if we could upgrade it, though." Nikki's terminal is set to let out all sorts of ugly sounding noises if it goes, off, though, so her comment about it still being active is mostly redundant. Mostly.

Alex smiles. "You worry too much, sis. Hell, we slipped around Trypticon's and Optima's ICE like it was sleeping on the job. Most of these big companies don't have security worth a dime. "Hell," he adds as he pops open a can of Dew. "I think we should go for something more challenging tonight."

Nikki rolls her eyes. "You make it look so easy sometimes, though...and it makes me think of all those movies and stuff where they're all 'that was too easy'. Ya know?" She reaches across for a burgerbite. "Anyway, what did you have in mind?"

Alex winks, a wolfish grin crossing his features. "That's why they're movies, sis. And me...hell, I'm thinking about seeing how good the FBI's security is...maybe lead them around in a cyberchase...

Her eyes widen a bit and she stares at him. "You're serious, aren't you? Are you sure we can do this? I mean...I want to be able to back you up and everything."

Alex spreads his hands. "Hell, I'm confident enough that even if they spot us, we can pull the plug before they manage a trace. And think of how cool that would be. Come on, we're a well-oiled machine, Nikki! What's the worst that could happen?"

Nikki chews her lip a bit and then smiles. "I'm not gonna answer--"

Just then, the doorbell rings.

Nikki looks over her shoulder. "Are you expecting someone?"

Alex frowns. "I don't think so. Ted and the boys weren't coming over tonight. Go see who it is, sis."

Nikki nods and scoots her chair out, standing up. "Get the lockdown ready, just in case?" She pads quietly towards the front door on her toes and opens the latch, pulling it out against the chain and answering, "Hello?"

A man in his late twenties stands on the other side. He seems unassuming...curly red hair, freckled face, dressed in a pizza-delivery man's uniform, holding of all things...a pizza. "Hey, hon! Frankie's Pizza, delivered piping hot!" he says cheerily.

Nikki blinks. "I didn't..." She calls over her shoulder. "Alex! Did you order a pizza?!"

"Huh? Uhm...I don't think so...I dunno, I've been kinda distracted..." comes Alex's voice wafting out of the other room.

Nikki leans to the door and smiles to the man. "Sorry...must be the wrong place."

The man's smile seems to grow cold. "No, I think we've got the right address, Miss Nikki Felder."

Nikki's smile fades a little. "'We'?" The light dawns and she pushes the door shut. "Alex!!"

Before the door can shut completely, a mighty force comes hurtling through it, snapping the chain right off the wood it's nailed to. The man in the pizza uniform is no longer holding a pizza, but a Glock with attached silencer, and he points it at her. "Don't scream girl. I'd hate to mar that pretty face of yours with a bullet hole." he says. Men dressed in black jumpsuits swarm through the door behind the red-haired man, carrying guns and equipment as Red Hair grabs Nikki by the neck.

Nikki's eyes widen and she gaks as he grabs her by the throat before she can run, reaching up to his forearm and wrapping her small hands around it, trying to pull it off her neck. She struggles hard, trying to warn her brother.

"What the-" comes the voice of Alex, which is abruptly cut off by the sound of something hard striking bone, and grunt of pain. One of the men in black talks into a headpiece as he closes the door and keeps it in place with a chair. Some of the others start walking around the room, with odd devices in their hands...like some sort of compact, hand-held scanning devices. But scanning for what? Suddenly, there's a call from the other room. "Mr. Frants! Ten seconds in and we already got it! The damn kid was trying to decode it when we came in!". The red-haired man - presumably Mr. Frants - smiled a happy smile. Happy for his own behalf, anyway. "You have no idea what you stole, did you. And now you'll never know." he purrs nastily at Nikki as he drags her over to the computer room, still pointing the gun at her in his vise-like grip...almost superhumanly strong.

Nikki freezes at the sound of her brother's voice being cut short and grunts a bit as she struggles harder. Her eyes scan rapidly for him as she's dragged into the other room. "Let. Me. Go."

Mr. Frants sneers and does so, pushing her onto her ass in the work room. One man appears to be at the computer, going through the files...but what attracts the most attention is another man that's got a plastic bag over Alex's head, choking him. Alex claws at the bag as the man grins nastily at Mr. Frants. "Kid was a white as a sheet...this'll give some nice color to his cheeks, yeah?"

Nikki freezes for half a second at the surreality of it all and then lunges for the man, filled with hate and rage. She screams, "Noooo!" as she claws for his eyes.

Mr. Frants pulls back his arm even as Nikki lunges and backhands the girl with the hand that holds the gun, knocking her to the floor. "Now that's not a nice way to treat guests, Nikki. What's wrong, are you worried about poor Alex?" he says mock sympathetically. "You want us to give him air?"

Nikki shakes her head, stunned from the blow. When she hears the offer she answers quickly, breathlessly, "Oh god yes....let him alone!"

Mr. Frants looks sternly at the man at the computer. "Mr. Kent."

The man turns. "Sir?"

Mr. Frants juts his chin at Alex. "You heard the girl...put a hole in the bag."

Mr. Kent nods with a grim smirk...and pulls out his pistol, pointing it at Alex...the gun speaks and blood splatters into the plastic...

Nikki shrieks at the inhuman slaying of her beloved brother and snatches up a long screwdriver laying next to her, moving quickly to drive it into the throat of 'Mr. Kent', fire lighting her eyes and almost drowning out the abysmal feeling of loss.

Mr. Frants is almost taken by surprise this time, moving to intercept, but only succeeding in slowing her momentum...Nikki's screwdriver manages to hit flesh, spearing into Mr. Kent's thigh. He cries out in pain. "Bitch!" he spits, turning the hand that holds the gun reflexively and pulling the trigger. Once. Twice. Three times.

Nikki jerks at the first couple shots, so filled with rage that she hardly notices, but the third finally brings it to her attention and she looks down at the blood welling from her own chest, surprised. Her hand releases the screwdriver as she drops to the floor, everything seeming to be in slow motion. She slumps down and lands with her face looking towards the lifeless body of her brother Alex. She reaches slowly towards him as her blood ebbs quickly from her, tears welling in her eyes.

Mr. Frants speaks, but it seems like his voice is coming from far away now. "You idiot! I wanted to keep one of them alive for questioning...oh, no matter. Just finish your work and lets get out of here." He says more but his words become blurred now as all Nikki can see is Alex's dead, staring eyes behind the plastic of the bag...there's noise all around but all Nikki can hear is her own heart pounding as she reaches for him from what seems like miles away...her arm getting weaker with every moment, her fingers brush against something metal...a metal band...the watch, the watch that was her birthday present to him...Nikki's fingers extend and try make contact once more...

Nikki speaks then, her fingertips clutching at the band of the watch. If she speaks it aloud, no one else seems to hear...but she can hear herself. It's the last thing she hears.

"Help me, Alex...
help me...help me to hurt them...
help...me...to...kill...them..."

A final breath. And then darkness.

End of Part 1

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Last modified: 2001-Oct-30 19:35:28

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