"Melody's End"

by Bob Marley

(Melody Power's is copyright Daria Morgandorffer who is copyright MTV, a VIACOM subsidiary, cool huh?  I'm writing a story about a fictional character created by a fictional character!)

The pounding early morning surf muffled the sound of his approach, but former special operations agent Melody Powers still managed to get the custom-built USP pistol she carried  on her person at all times out and into her shooting hand a full second before the high velocity  rounds from her assailants weapon tore into her shoulder and right arm, sending her reeling to the cold beach sand. It was Vance of course, the Company always sent the best when they retired a pro of Melody's calibre.  Even as she felt the blood spurt from the massive entry and exit wounds in her body, Melody's efficient mind evaluated the younger specialists choice of weapons, rather gratuitous overall, he could have done a much more covert job with a rifle from long range, but leave it to Vance to take this operation head on. The younger man regarded her with a look of pity as she lay fighting for a breath, blood puddling underneath her body and sinking into the wet sand. "I'm sorry it had to be this way, Melody" could that be a tear forming in the young agent's tired eye? "But times change, so does policy, and so does the Company, the Red's are our allies now and you're too much of a threat to leave alive." Vance slowly kneeled beside the ruined body of the women he had once loved. As Melody felt the blackness she'd been fighting start to overwhelm her, he spoke for the last time. "In the end, you hated the communists so much you became the personification of that righteous rage and America's best weapon, but a rabid dog has to be destroyed, and I want you to know I understand HQ's decision even though I disagree with it." The blond agent, pausing only to close his former mentor's now sightless eyes for the last time, reholstered his Colt Python before beginning the long walk back up the still beach to the nearby Villa. The Company would want a report about the operation post haste, yet somehow he hoped his next assignment would never come.
 

(Short but pointless, huh?  This was a late night experiment in mimicking Daria's writing style as closely as possible and I think I got pretty close except for some of the detail's I threw in just because I'm a military history buff (my choice of the custom USP pistol being a case in point, though why Vance is using a Python is anyone's guess, you'd think he'd have gotten ahold of something more reliable and sexier like a Glock or even a silenced MP-5 PDW sub-machine gun come to think of it, my belief is if you shoot at Melody, you'd definitely want to make sure she doesn't have a chance to get a return shot off).  That's why the heavy load's in Vance's gun, theoretically he'd be using something like Winchester "Black Talon" ammo or Hydra-shock rounds, since it's just him vs. Melody, he doesn't have to worry about his shots going right through her body and hitting an innocent bystander (Uncle Bob asks you counter-terrorist agents out there to be considerate of other's).  Melody, on the other hand, is carrying the smaller, more accurate and silenced (if less powerful) USP which is probably loaded with soft-head man (woman, person? Darn chauvinist gun maker's)-stopper rounds which are designed specifically to penetrate a target but then tumble all over the place once inside and do really nasty things to internal organs instead of going right on through (un-like a 7.62 mm AK round for instance).  Thus, if Vance had come after Melody in a crowded area like a subway or air-terminal she'd have had the advantage.  That was a whole lot more than you ever wanted to know about this story, huh?  Sorry about that, as a military history nut, I don't get many chances to expound on pointless stuff like this that often, Bob begs forgiveness.  Anywho, comments, questions, flames, and assorted blasphemy can be directed to me at ncript@hotmail.com, Bienvenidos.

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