Beach Drabble, Part 1

Beach Drabble, Part 1, inspired by http://i.imgur.com/sVvgIor.jpg

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"Miki, darling, I'm sure you look fine. Now get your ass out here. I'm not missing a beach trip because you suddenly grew a sense of shame."

The girl with sea-foam hair leaned against the doorframe of her best friend's room and checked her watch. T-minus ten minutes until it was time to meet the rest of the group at the gates. Adjusting her book-laden backpack to fit more comfortably on her slim shoulders, she rapped her knuckles on Miki's door again.

"Look, Miura, It's a dress, not a bad Christmas sweater. If you would have been at the planning meeting instead of at the track, you could have-" Thump.

The suddenly unconscious Suzu fell heavily against the door and slid down to the floor. A muffled expletive could be heard from the room before the door began to open slowly. A set of eyes glanced out from above tanned cheeks and took in the sight of the sleeping beauty now sprawled across the dorm hallway.

"Aw, dammit," Miki muttered before gingerly opening her door the rest of the way. The tomboyish track star looked anything but as she stepped out of her room to reveal a pink sundress covering her athletic frame. Grumbling a few more curses, she leveraged her good arm under the narcoleptic and heaved the girl up into a standing position. Looping her stump through the straps of her own bag, the taller girl began to walk/drag her friend to the gates of Yamaku. Miki glanced over at the sleeping Suzu and allowed a smirk to grace her features.

"The things I do for love..."

---

Deep in the clutches of dreamland, Special Agent Suzu "Hedgehog" Suzuki had just infiltrated the enemy compound. Of course, that was to be expected. Suzu had trained a long time for this. It didn't hurt that The Council had planned this little raid around the World Cup Final. Those idiot men couldn't focus for the life of them. Suzu stealthily made her way deeper into the concrete jungle without sparing a glance to the guards gathered around a small TV set. Crouching behind a short wall, she pulled out her communicator.

"Hedgehog reporting," she whispered into the microphone. "I have infiltrated the Chauvinist Compound. My scanners say that the path to the objective is completely clear. Do you have any new directives for me?"

A slight hiss accompanied the loud reply from the speaker.

"Wahaha~! Excellent job, Hedgechan! The President says to continue as planned. May the goddess watch over you. Council out!"

Suzu nodded and pocketed the communicator with a sigh. The President never spoke for herself. Suzu hoped that a successful operation tonight would convince The President to meet with her face-to-face. The President was one of the few people Suzu admired. She had always displayed a level of strategic and tactical genius that had as of yet been unmatched by anything the men could throw at them. She was the reason they were winning this war. Well, that and Suzu's field work. The girl with the sleepy eyes allowed herself a small smile at that. She was the best agent the Feminist movement had, and she was more than happy to bear the brunt of the footwork for the cause.

A sharp gasp broke her from her thoughts. Dammit. She looked to her right and saw a heavyset man with an arm full of what appeared to be chips doused in melted cheese.

"Hey, sound the ala- gack!"

A swift foot to the throat ended the pig's sentence before he could raise an alarm. Spinning into a combat crouch, she quickly moved towards her objective. The men would notice the absence of their snack-bearer before the next commercials. She needed to finish this quickly.

True to her thoughts, a cry ("Taro! Noo! Not the nachos!!") almost immediately sprung from her previous position and a claxon began to sound its shrill cry. Suzu turned a corner and nearly ran headfirst into a small patrol of guardsmen. The lead, a blonde male missing an ear, barely had time to raise his weapon before a sharp smack to his temple knocked him to the floor. Flipping over her incapacitated enemy, Suzu snatched a canister from her utility belt and flicked off the trigger ring. Green gas immediately began to fill the vicinity. One by one, her enemies dropped around her. Sleeping gas. Suzu's favorite weapon. A genetic defect had somehow left her immune to whatever toxins the standard sleeping agent employed, so she could use these sorts of weapons with absolutely no drawbacks.

She quickly took stock of the situation and began to make her way towards her objective. She could not afford to fail here. As she sprinted past rows of identical metal doors she mentally counted off until...there. Door number 19. Allowing herself a moment to ready her knives, she kicked the door in. Popping another set of sleeping grenades, she rolled through the ensuing smoke and landed in a crouch.


Suzu immediately noticed four men asleep on the ground. Her gaze moved upwards and came to a stop on the short figure standing in the middle of the room. The light from the surrounding computer screens glinted off of his glasses and a red scarf covered his mouth and nose, effectively rendering Suzu's sleeping gas innefective.

"You must be the Shaman," Suzu said, flexing her fingers around her knives. "I can't say that I was expecting you."

The short figure jerked back as if he was struck. Recovering quickly, he pointed an accusing finger at the young woman.

"Well I've been expecting you! You bitches are so predictable. Did you really think you could take such easy advantage of me?" The bespectacled man assumed an aggressive stance and started to yell.

"I've been on to your plans since the beginning! I've had everything prepared! Plans on counterplans on contingencies! It will take a lot more than one whore operative to stop this! You stupid bitch! I've seen things! I know things! I carry with me the hope of an entire race of men! You will never win while I'm alive! In fact..."

The Shaman immediately bolted to his left and slammed a large red button on the control panel. Quick as a flash, Suzu's knife hand twitched and a knife found its way into the man's unprotected side. The man let out a sharp gasp before sliding down to the floor.

"You're too late, cunt. I just initiated the self-destruct. 10 seconds until," he let out a wet cough, "ten seconds until we're finished. Your objective was never even here in the first place."

Suzu's eyes widened as the compound began to shake all around her.

"SELF DESTRUCT IN TEN... NINE..."

This couldn't be.

"EIGHT... SEVEN..."

It was over.

"SIX... FIVE..."

She was dead.

"FOUR... THREE..."

She had failed.

"TWO... ONE..."

She was-

was-

was...

waking up in the back seat of Natsume's car. Suzu blinked owlishly as her senses adjusted to the world around her. Suddenly her world was full of tan Miki face.

"Hey! Look who's back in the world of the living! You've been out for the last hour, Snoozu. We're almost there."

Oh. Yeah. They were going to the beach.

Suzu gave a little yawn before nodding slowly and flashing Miki a sly smile.

"I remember. I see you decided to wear the sundress. You look great!"

The athlete's already dark skin darkened in a blush. She waved off the compliment and turned to look out the window at the passing scenery. Naomi turned around from her place in the passenger seat and gave Suzu one of her characteristic smiles.

"You woke up at just the right time! We've been listening to lamebrain's music for the past twenty minutes," she said, gesturing to Natsume beside her. "Your turn. Whadda ya want?"

"Let's listen to some Riot Grrrl!"

The other three girls let out a collective groan as the opening bars of Suzu's music sounded through the car speakers. The girl with the sea-foam hair smiled a tired smile. Today would be a good day.