Vive le Starlis Nikkitrina Feral Ch. 6; Revenge is a dish, and so am I: 1996 ****************************** The New Year came and went, and eventually, 6 months after she joined, Nikki was faced with the last day of her Enforcer Training, and the final test. She walked nonchalantly down the corridor towards the double doors of the gym. As soon as she sat down, Haiden's assistant handed her the 300-question test. It took her only about 90 minutes to finish it, and she walked triumphantly out of the room, Haiden glaring at her the whole way. ******************************* When she got home, Felina immediately asked her how the test went. "A breeze, I knew almost every question, and I was the first one done," Nikki grinned evilly. "Don't get cocky yet," Felina joked, "You don't know exactly how you did yet, one question could've killed you." Nikki rolled her eyes, "Yea, but it was in the bag, I got an A easy." "OK, so now all you have to do is be good enough to rise in rank," Felina reminded her. "No problem there either," Nikki retreated into the kitchen in search of dinner. Felina interrupted her quest with a manila envelope. "What's this?" Nikki asked, undoing the bracket. "Prototype plans of new Military Mechs that Feral is trying to push for approval," Felina stated. "Feral?!" Nikki yelled, "He's not allowed to do that! The only reason he was at the training was because he's buddy-buddy with that gray kat who was only there to oversee the military operations. The government is only providing funding now, they shouldn't even have their noses in MY SQUAD!" "Geeze, chill out. The plans suck anyway. Most of them would have trouble standing up, let alone walking. I guess you just need to come up with your own plans to replace the older scraped designs. But that means concentrating less on the Enforcers," Felina reasoned with the fuming Nikki. Nikki sighed, "OK, you're right. But I'm still going to kick Feral's ass for trying." "Good luck!" Felina laughed, "The guy weighs like 300 pounds! I'd love to see that fight, the midget versus the monster, hehehe." Nikki growled, "You wanna fight? I'll take you on be-atch." "Bring it on shorty, prepare to eat linoleum." Felina launched herself at Nikki, knocking her down and sliding her half way across the kitchen. Nikki grabbed Felina's uniform with her fangs and kicked her, like a 'cat' with her legs. Both were growling, and laughing at the same time. The visitor bell rang suddenly, interrupting their play-fight. Nikki got up and bounded over to the door. It was Kris. "Hey. Am I missing something?" "I'm just beating the shit out of Felina," Nikki grinned. "You wish," Felina shouted from the kitchen. "I hope you don't mind pizza. I'm too lazy to cook or clean today," Nikki explained to Kris. "No problem. I haven't had pizza in a while, believe it or not. How did the test go, Cadet Nikki?" Kris smiled at her, following her to the kitchen. "I passed. Piece of pizza pie. Now to enact my revenge! Muahahahaha!" "What exactly are you going to do to Haiden? Tie him down and beat 'em?" Kris asked. "No, hmm. I guess my revenge will be… rising to be better than he ever could, since he obviously gets a kick out of kats failing… and I'll probably rub it in his face every now and then," Nikki sat at the counter, "I guess that's about it, but it should be sufficient." The visitor bell rang again. "That'll be the pizza," Felina got up and walked to the door with the money in her paw. "Did you hear about the new designs the military came up with?" Kris turned to Nikki. "Oh did I. I'll kill them if they try that move again." "Got any good ideas?" Nikki looked up for a second, then back down at Kris, "Yea, lots. And one BIG one. Heh." "Please," Felina said, re-entering the kitchen with the pizza, "Do tell." "I'm not sure what I'll call them yet, I'm definitely going to revamp the Timberwolf, some new assault and light Mechs are a must. But my big idea is to replace the fusion core engine with an anti-matter one. You know, like the ones they used to launch those two new space probes, but redesigned for a Mech, of course. It'll probably be very heavy, about as heavy as an average medium Mech, but the new Mechs with the engine can be bigger, like 150 tons or something. Hmmm, I think I'll call them ShadowMechs. They should be fast, around 80 km\hr, and extra deadly, so that name would suit them. What do you think?" "I'd like to know the thought process you used to come up with all that! Wow," Kris said, amazed. Nikki reached for a slice of pizza, "Let's eat this stuff before it gets cold." "Nothing worse than cold pizza," Felina said, on her fourth piece, "Don't forget to write that down, I'm having trouble remembering all that, though that's probably because you talk so fast." Nikki balled up a napkin and hurled it at Felina. It bounced off her nose and landed in her glass of coke. They all started to laugh as Felina fished the soggy paper out of her drink. ******************************** Haiden picked up the phone on his desk and dialed a number quickly. He was loosing his edge. Sixteen kats passed out of 100 this time, and over half of them were she-kats. He began to turn red with frustration as the phone continued to ring in his ear. Then there was that one, Nikkitrina, obviously the Commander's pet for some reason. He wanted to find out why, and then make her sorry she ever wanted to become an enforcer. Someone finally picked up on the other line. "Hello?" a sleazy, high-pitched voice answered. "This is Haiden…" "Uncle Haiden, how are you?" the voice interrupted. "Shuttup and listen," Haiden snapped, "I want you to find me information about a certain Nikkitrina. She'll have some tie in with the Commander. Find out what it is…" "Oh that's easy Uncle, she IS the commander." "What! What do you mean?" "She's the new Mech Commander. You know, I told you about that squad I was trying to join. She got me kicked out though." "Who are her friends?" Haiden was already coming up with a plan. "Uh, Lt. Feral, and uh… some other guy. He's the second in command in the MechSquad, then there's some other guy, I don't know his name either, he's fourth in rank…I think." "Find out as much about all four of them as you can. I'll call you when I want the information." "Hey, what did she do to get you so pissed off? Heh…heh." Haiden slammed the phone back in its cradle. He tucked his paws under his chin and stared off into space, an evil smile beginning to play on his face. ******************************** The next morning was morning as usual. Nikki, Felina and Kris all took a cab together to the Mech HQ and went to their own offices once they arrived. Kris liked to spend most of his day with Nikki, so he only went to his office to check his mail and get some paperwork to do with her that day. He grabbed a bulging stack of mail and an even larger stack of folders, filled with forms and plans. Nikki, in her office, sorted through her mail. "Notice, Notice, Application, Notice, Application, my score - 98%, All Right! Application, Bill, Bill, You May Already Be a Winner…trash can. Plan, Application, and a Plan. Not much today, you?" she looked up at Kris who had just entered the room. "Mostly the same, something from my mom though. Kinda freaky, she never sends me mail," he sat down and slowly opened the small envelope. He pulled out the folded paper and scanned it. "What's it say?" Nikki leaned over the desk to look, but stopped when she saw the tears in his eyes. He looked up at her and sighed, "My…my sister died. The funeral…uh, is on Friday." Nikki got up and walked around the desk, trying the best to comfort him with a hug, "Oh, Kris, I'm so sorry." He got up suddenly, "Can I have some time off?" "Of course, any time." "I'll leave tonight. I think I just need to be alone for a while. I'll take my jet down to the lake and stay on Thursday, so I'll be ready on Friday for..," he started to cry. Nikki moved over to him again, and this time he didn't pull away. They stood there together until duty called over the intercom. "Commander," the voice called, "The tech's need you down in the Mech bay to oversee the first steps in developing that new engine. They're running the Sim to test in all weather and battle conditions." "Right, I'll be there in a sec," she turned off the com, "Kris, you can stay here if you want." "No," he responded, and smiled with relief, "That's what Thursday's for." ************************************ The phone rang and the small tom kat picked it up, "Hello?" "It's me. What did you find?" "OK, You know Nikkitrina, all that. The Lt. is just her roommate from what I found, that guy that's fourth in command, his name is Matt he's just some friend they know at the squad. The juicy stuff was with Nikki's second in command. His name is Kris Faska, and he and the commander…" "Don't call her that!" "Sorry, Nikki are all lovey-dovey-mushy stuff together. Cool, huh." "So the best way to get to her, is through him. Good job Nephew. I just have one more job for you." *********************************** Down in the Mech bay Nikki, Kris, and Felina stood behind the Chief Engineer at a large computer screen, which was displaying the functions of the first experimental engine. The fully detailed engine was surrounded by a wire frame of the smallest ShadowMech chassis, the Grim Reaper (named so because of Felina's love of the old scraped design of the same name). "How much have you tested so far?" Felina asked, reviewing the charts. "Almost done with the weather and terrain," the tech answered, "Just battle tests to go. That'll determine the real effectiveness of the engine." He hit a few keys and the simulator changed. The wire frame Mech began to sustain damage, but only until the center torso armor was sheared completely away did the engine begin to falter. The same went for the legs, but only because a Mech with no legs can't walk no matter how good the engine is. When all tests were complete, the first prototype engine was approved, but it weighed in at 85 tons, giving a good excuse to keep working on that design. The construction for the first engine would start in 3 months, after the ShadowMech designs were also approved. The rest of the day consisted of paper work, and at the end of the day Nikki and Felina headed home, but Kris headed for the Enforcer hanger to get his jet. ******************************* Inside the Enforcer hanger a small shadowy figure approached Kris' jet. It entered through the open bomb bay doors and shortly emerged, leaving a small blinking object attached near the fuel tanks. ******************************* "I Kris not coming over then tonight?" Felina asked Nikki after hearing about his sister. "No, he'll be taking tomorrow off too, he's going to the lake to sort out his thoughts," Nikki explained. "Maybe I can talk to you about something that's been bothering me. You know you and I are Maylanas, and Kris isn't," Felina started. "Yea, I know. That's a problem isn't it," Nikki reluctantly said. "Eventually we're going to find the other two Maylanas, and if Kris is still around, as your 'boyfriend' then you'll feel bad about having to ditch him for one of them. Also, Maylanas live for over 500 years, Kats hardly live to be 100. He'll die just as you reach your full maturity," Felina tried to be as gentile with the explanation as possible. "I realize that, but I'll worry about that when the time comes, Ok?" Nikki left the conversation at that by entering the bathroom to take a shower. *************************** High in the air, Kris gazed out the cockpit of his jet at the rich forest and the gently rolling hills. Suddenly, an alarm began to sound. He scanned the controls, searching for the problem. Before he could realize that a bomb was detected in the rear engine, half of his jet suddenly got blown off. It began to rapidly lose altitude until finally resting in the middle of the forest in a towering column of flame and smoke. ************************** ************************** Legalities: MechWarrior and all other Mech related material (except for 'Shadow Mech and MechSquad) are copyright 1996 Activision Inc. and copyright 1999 Hasbro Interactive, FASA Corporation and Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.