Here is the Whole Shibang.
All comments/flamage should be directed to <FrankC5344@aol.com>
HTG
00~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****BUBBLEGUM CRUSH*****
***Future's Past***
Introduction:
First, let me say that I'm no writer. I wrote for a fantasy RPG
game, and I was told I am very good, but in my opinion, I am no writer.
I'm not going to pretend this is something it isn't, it's just a writing
of a young man who wishes to add a little fanfic to one of his favorite
things, namely, Bubblegum Crisis.
About Bubblegum Crush:
Bubblegum Crush is my set of writings that happened after
Bubblegum Crisis and Crash. Keeping with the BGC, BGC!...Line, Bubblegum
Crush seemed like the only reasonable name. Just as the BGC and BGC!
series have their own names for each of their OVAs, the name for this
(Would be...) title in the series is "Future's Past."
I'd like to point out that that while I accept Grand Mal as BGC,
I don't accept the part in Grand Mal where it says Sylia's brain has been
enhanced, I simply accept the majority of events that happened in that
book did actually take place. (So I kind of consider it half-cannon)
About Future's Past:
I first got the idea for this story when reading the "Is Sylia a
Boomer?" debate. Someone there got off the subject and asked what would
happen if Priss had died in BGC6.
I know Priss WAS almost killed off in the end of "Red Eyes," but
I hadn't given it much thought until that someone posed the question.
In response, I wrote this fanfic...
Future's Past was done to give my opinion on what would have
happened had the producers of BGC actually decided to do away with Priss.
This "alternate reality" is what would have happened, in my opinion, to
the world once Priss was gone.
Please excuse the people I left out, mainly one of our AD Police
friends (What was that girl's name anyway?), along with Lisa, Fargo, and
Gibison. I can't squeeze every single BGC character into this new world.
Also, please excuse my lack of Linna character development, but
I really can't get into Linna's character very well, so she's pretty much
a smaller character here. (Frankly, I just hate Linna...)
New Characters:
Ahhhhhh. The point of Future's Past. There are no new main
characters. Every main character here comes from Bubblegum Crisis, Crash,
or Grand Mal. They're the same old characters with new ideas added in.
Other Stuff:
Comments/Criticisms and all that goes to- FrankC5344@aol.com.
That is, of course, if you actually take the time to read all 17 chapters.
I suppose I should say that most every character in this story
belongs to Artmic and Youmex. They own the copyrights for the characters,
the hardsuits, the world, etc. You all know where I'm coming from...
And, of course, some thanks:
Thanks to whoever asked that question, because without it, I
could have never written this thing. Thanks to the people at the Final
Fantasy RPG newsgroup, who loved my work even though I hated it. Finally,
thanks to my very old and very slow computer, because if it had never
screwed up on the spelling of a search phrase, I would never have found
BGC, or anime at all...
And the rest, as they say...
is history....
01~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****Megatokyo-3:52AM, December 3, 2034*****
Priscilla Asagiri hunched over the grating. She looked around
impatiently as the laser cut through the think metal. "Damn governments.
It's below fuckin' freezing outside and they're making me do this."
The laser cut through the last bit of metal, Priss slipped the
remaining grating off, grabbed the laser and her backpack and slipped
inside one of the main air ducts of the Megatokyo Genom Tower.
*****Meagtokyo-1:40PM, December 3, 2034*****
Linna Yamazaki leaned back casually in Sylia's apartment. She glanced
over at Nene. "What's the matter with you?" Nene looked as frightened as
she could be, which actually made her look girlishly cute. Linna hated
Nene's looks. She could get anybody with that face of hers...
Nene Romanova stood and walked to the window. "Sylia pulled me out of
work at ADPolice. She never does that just to talk about a case. She even
called it a 'class one' meeting."
"So?" Linna picked up the picture of Sylia, Mackie, Dr. Stingray, Dr.
Haynes, and Dr. Yuri from the nearby desk. Strange that such a girl like
Sylia could turn out to be the cold, unimpressionable person she was
today.
Nene turned around, now looking serious. "The last time she called a
class one, the boomers revolted against the humans..."
Mackie Stingray walked in the door, while being a only a little
shorter than Sylia, he, like Nene, gave the impression he was younger than
he looked.
"Want some chips?" He munched loudly. Linna turned around to look at
him. "No. What are you doing here?"
"Sylia wanted me here." He sat down near Nene.
"Sylia WANTED you here? This IS getting strange." Linna joked. Nene
reached for some chips. Mackie pulled the bag away. "None for you. You
have to keep that figure." he joked.
"That's enough." Sylia Stingray entered the room. In a way, each of
the Knight Sabers saw what made her their leader. Her stature, her voice
that commanded respect, the way she carried herself, everything about her
seemed to say "Just do what I say, don't question my decisions."
She turned on the wall monitor. "We have a very important mission.
I've asked Mackie to join us specifically for this reason." She turned to
the screen. "British Inteligence MI-6 picked this up from the London Genom
Tower. It is a prototype that Genom is working on. It's called a
'phaser.' When all of the Earth governments learned of this, they wanted
it destroyed."
"What does it do?" Nene leaned forward, interested. This thing was
radically advanced.
"It speeds up all the molecules in an object."
"So, what good is that?" Tehcnical things were not Linna's area.
Sylia slammed her hand against a nearby table. "The reason my hand
does not pass through the table is because my molecules are bouncing off
the tables. With Genom's phaser, the molecules are accelerated so fast
that they can pass through things."
"So they are impervious to pain, this is basic stuff, Linna." Nene
smiled at her co-worker, she was a year younger and knew more about
everything than Linna. Except money, nobody could beat Linna in that.
"So they can use it to make invincible soliders?" Linna still wasn't
getting it.
"No, because the solider wouldn't be able to hit back, his molecules
would also go through the other persons." Mackie went over the the
mini-bar and got himself a Pepsi.
"Mackie's correct. What is can be used for is transportation." Sylia
sat down in a chair. "A person who can't feel any pain can pass right
through buildings, stone, even the center of the Earth without feeling the
least bit of a headache. A person could become phased, and, when they
reach their destination, become unphased. Travel from one side of the
Earth to the other could take milliseconds."
"So where do we come in? We blow up their little machine?"
"We have been hired by the U.N. Our job is to make sure they believe
it is impossible to make, otherwise they'll just keep building more for
every one we destroy. We are to have one built, sabotage it, and then
steal it after it doesn't work."
"Steal it? If they don't think it works, what's the point?"
"The U.N. is going to use it to finally destroy the Genom empire. The
government of each country will gain control of all the Genom resources in
that country."
"So what do we do?"
"Priss is already inside Genom Tower. Mackie, Nene, you two will be
two of the many scientists Genom is 'inviting' to this discussion. I've
already planted the false information. Linna and I will be outside the
Tower in case anything goes wrong."
Mackie, Linna, and Nene all looked around nerviously. Genom, the
U.N., phasers, they will all caught in the middle.
"How much are they giving us?" Linna smiled as Nene and Mackie whined
in protest.
"20 Billion a piece." Sylia said, her face showed no signs of
anything at all, as usual.
Mackie looked pleased. "When do we start?"
02~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****MTTA Flight 607-9:07AM, December 4, 2034*****
The programming and computer genius Nene Romanova leaned back in her
seat. She had already seen the in-flight movie while flying to San
Franciso, they had had to fly there just so that they could fly back on
the ticket Genom purchased for them. Why did Sylia say that both Mackie
and Nene lived in the US? At least the flight would have been bareable if
Mackie wasn't there.
"Doctor" Mackie Stingray sat next to Nene, watching the ocean out the
window. Supposedly, his job would be to make sure this thing didn't
malfunction, kind of like a fail-safe guy. He was having a lot of mixed
feelings. He had wanted to be a main member of the Knight Sabers ever
since they were created, but now that he was, he didn't feel any different
from how he had felt before. Mackie turned toward Nene, now his undercover
partner. He smiled. Something about him and Nene being undercover together
made him happy.
Nene glanced to her left, Mackie was staring at her. She smiled to
herself. Ever since the Knight Sabers were formed, Mackie had always been
chasing after her and Priss. She knew well enough to keep him at an arms
length, but he had always been there for her when she needed him. If he
could act as well as he chased girls, they'd be in like James Bond...
*****Megatokyo-3:37PM, December 4, 2034*****
Nene lifted two of her small bags from the luggage claim area in
MegaTokyo International Airport. Unlike most females, she could never be
accuised of overpacking. Mackie had one large bag, which also contained
some of the surveilance equipment they would need.
"Ms. Yuri, Mr. Smith, hello."
Nene tensed instantly. The voice was human enough, but she had been a
Knight Saber long enough to know a boomer when she heard one. She turned
to see two of the generic 33-C boomers in their suits and shades. The
quintisential bodyguards.
"We're here to escort you to the Tower..."
*****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-5:46PM, December 4, 2034*****
Nene and Mackie rode the elevator up the side of the Genom Tower.
Nene had seen heights like this before, but she had always been fighting
something at the time, and this was the first time she had to enjoy the
view.
"Wonderful, isn't it?" Madigan said from behind them.
"Yes. It is." Mackie turned toward Madigan. "I don't suppose you
would tell us where we're going? You're not a very talkitive person, you
know."
"We're taking you up to your room. Seeing as how you've already spent
time together on the plane and in our limo, we thought you'd like to share
a room."
'Great for the mission, bad for me,' Nene thought. She turned toward
the boomer. A class she had never seen before. "This isn't a 33-C. What is
it?"
Madigan seemed surprised. "You have an interest in boomers?"
"Inquiring minds wish to know." Nene smiled.
"Our newest class, the 34-C. State of the art. Best protector we've
made yet."
"You mean 'best killer.'" Nene whispered under her breath.
"What was that?" Madigan seemed to scowl at her.
"Nothing, nothing." Nene smiled as the door opened as she passed
Madigan on the way out. They walked down the hall, took a left, then a
right. Nene was glad she didn't have to know her way around this place.
The entire floor seemed like a maze. Finally, they stopped in front of a
room.
"Have a nice stay." Madigan said as she opened the door. Mackie
stepped in. As Nene moved to go in, Madigan put her hand out to stop her.
"I'll be watching you." she said in a very menacing way.
"I'm flattered." Nene said sarcastically as she stepped in and closed
the door in Madigan's face.
*****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-7:23PM, December 4, 2034*****
Nene sat on her bed combing her hair as Mackie took out the equipment
Sylia had given him. He tossed a transciever to Nene. They both put them
on, hid the microphones under their clothes, and turned them on.
"Big sister, this is little brother, do you copy? Over."
"Shut up, Mackie, this isn't the army." Linna's voice answered.
"Hold on," Sylia said, "Priss, you hear me?"
"Finally, I thought you were going to forget me in here. I've been
fucking crammed up like a sardine in here for almost two days."
"We're on the 27th floor, room 275. Come on up." Nene teased.
"Be right up." Priss said, obviously serious.
"So what's going on?" Linna leaned back in the Silky Doll van. She
stared out the window. "Hey, I think I can see you guys..."
"Shut up, Linna." Mackie said. "We're going down to our first dinner
in an hour. We get to mix and mingle with la creme de la creme..."
"Hey, Sylia. Do you know Genom has a new 34-C class?"
"No." Sylia said, surprise in her voice. A change for her. "I'll
check on it." She moved over to the other side of the van and started
pressing buttons on Linna's laptop.
"Hey, Nene." Priss rolled up some blueprints she had out. "I think
I'm right below your room."
"Really?" Mackie smiled, stomping his foot on the floor a few times.
"Yep. I'm right under the vent on the left side of your room."
Nene and Mackie walked over to the vent. "Can't see you." Nene
called. "Don't have to scream, I'm wearing the transciever." Priss said.
"I can't see you either, but I'm down here."
"Hey Mackie, can you-" Nene broke off as she turned to see Mackie
with a cup of steaming hot coffee coming her way. He had a finger up to
his mouth, silently telling her to be quiet. He walked over to the vent,
and smiled as he dumped the coffee down it.
Priss screamed. Nene and Mackie fell to the floor laughing. When
they finally composed themselves enough to talk, they described it to
Linna. Priss was swearing at them the entire time.
*****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-9:54PM, December 4, 2034*****
As Nene took a shower, Mackie wrapped a small sandwitch from the
mini-bar in their room to drop down the vent to Priss. He had to unfasten
the cover to fit the sandwidge through, but Priss got it. She said it was
the least he could do after dumping the coffee over her.
"Alright, I'm turning this thing off. See you all tomarrow." As each
of the girls echoed his good-bye, he shut off the transceiever. He crept
near to the bathroom door. He opened it the tiniest bit, and stole the
towels off the rack. Fifteen minutes later Nene started screaming at him.
He smiled as he held both of the towels with him on his bed.
"MACKIE! MACKIE! I'm going to open this door when I count to three-"
"Alright!" Mackie jumped up.
"When I count to three there better be a towel outside this door.
One! TWO..."
Mackie finally gave in and put a towel outside the bathroom door.
Nene opened it a tiny crack, covering herself as best she could with her
dirty clothes. "Thank you." she whispered as she snatched the towel off
the floor and ducked back inside the room. Mackie started laughing.
"'Night Nene." he called as he shut off the light in his room.
03~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-1:30PM, December 5, 2034*****
"...and finally, there will be no recording or taping of any kind. Do
not keep notes of these procedings, do not make anything that may allow
someone else to build a phaser if it were to ever fall into their hands.
Do I make myself clear?" Madigan pounded her fist on the table for effect.
Slightly more than three dozen people were there from their respective
areas. The greatest minds in the scientific universe.
"Anything you want shall be brought in, simply ask our boomer maids.
Do not attempt to leave this room before five-thirty, as we have a total
of more than a dozen 34-C boomers guarding the surrounding area.
Priss sat in the ventilation shaft. Luckily, the room the scientists
had to deliberate in was large, and required a signifigant vent. She set
the camera into place. In a hushed voice she said "Alright, Nene and
Mackie are in. You got visual?"
"Yes." Linna said, Sylia was changing into her softsuit in the back
of the van. "Keep your voice low from now on so they don't get caught..."
*****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-4:27PM, December 7, 2034*****
Linna sat in the cramped air duct, lazily reading a book she had
brought with when she and Priss had switched places "How to Make a Fortune
with the Right Stocks." She was half-listening to the voices in the room
outside when she heard someone say. "I don't believe so, let's ask..." he
was obviously glancing down at his list to see who excelled in what, "Mr.
Smith."
Linna jumped. Mackie! "Sylia..." a small whisper of Mackie's voice
came from the transceiver.
Sylia's voice answered, calm and cool, as if she had seen this coming
at the beginning of the day. "Stand up and move over to the diagram in the
center of the room."
Mackie did as he was ordered, taking the pointer stick from the two
arguing people as he did so. As they both sat down, he whispered "What do
I-"
"Point to the large circular object just below the compensator."
Sylia cut him off. Mackie had been paying attention enough to know where
it was.
"Tell them they should move it right below the lateral vent." Mackie
did as he was told, pointing as he explained.
"That should give them enough room to move the pattern buffers from
the fore to the aft area. Which should give them just enough room to put
the back up buffer in the original's place."
Mackie repeated what Sylia said. Someone objected, saying that it was
fine to simply have one buffer, and his job was to make sure the crystals
didn't overheat.
"You're the one who has to put the failsafes in, that's your job."
Sylia edged.
"YOUR job is to make this machine works. MY job is to make sure
someone doesn't die when you fuck up your job." Mackie said, an angry tone
in his voice. He should be an actor...
"To hell with the crystals." Sylia said with a smile.
"To hell with the crystals. You can get another dilythium crystal if
it cracks, but what will we tell your family when you die testing this
thing?" Mackie raised his voice to almost a shout with the last few words.
Some people clapped, others laughed. Someone said, "Okay, let's move
on...Mr. Kennedy. What are your thoughts on the intermix formula?"
"Good job guys." Linna said as Mackie sat back down.
*****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-1:07PM, December 8, 2034*****
"Picking up where we left off yesterday...Ms. Yuri, once we have the
material scanned, how do you plan we store it within the allowed space for
the pattern buffer?" An uneasy chairman scientist said as Madigan had
concluded her speech as usual today. Madigan was leaving the room, but he
still couldn't help but hate being appointed chairperson, this phaser idea
seemed so wrong. But he had a wife and family to think about.
Nene slid further down into her seat. She hadn't had a good nights
sleep yesterday, now this was the least she needed. Genom already had
people programming and producing the parts they had decided certainly on,
why couldn't she just have gotten through this whole thing without being
called on?
Sylia sipped her tea. She usually had one as soon as she got up in
the morning, but this mission was delaying her teatime. "You're planning
on using Genom's new isolinear chips." she leaned back, and suddenly
realized what she had done. "No, wait-"
Too late. Nene had already said it. Madigan froze in the doorway. She
turned and stared directly at Nene with eyes like an eagle.
"Isolinear chips? How did you know about those? Those have been a
well-kept company secret since the first plans were drawn up a month ago."
Madigan's eyes narrowed. "Come with me. The rest of you...talk amongst
yourselves."
"Great move, Ms. Scientist." Nene whispered sarcastically as she got
up to follow Madigan out.
04~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-1:11PM, December 8, 2034*****
Madigan pulled Nene into a side-room. "You're a dead woman in fifteen
minutes if you can't explain how you know what you know in fifteen
seconds."
"Word travels fast?" Nene smiled.
Madigan pulled out a gun. "Don't push me."
"October Network." Sylia said. Nene didn't say anything. "October
Network told you." she whispered again.
"October Network." Nene whispered. She had to struggle to surpress a
smile. She was going to beat Madigan at her own game.
"How do you know about October Network?"
"Kaufman."
"Kaufman."
"Kaufman?" Madigan was surprised. "He's been in the hospital since
his stroke last year."
"Shame about the sexaroid." Nene said, this time without any help
from Sylia.
Madigan seemed even more surprised. "How much do you know?"
"That's what you get for sending updated files to a man in a hospital
bed. My friend got ahold of some of the files."
"What's your friend's name?"
"Why, so you can kill him too?"
"Good answer, Nene." Linna smiled, looking out the vent into the
room. It had been thrown into a small pandemonium since Nene's removal.
Mackie was the only one not saying anything. Obviously listening in on the
conversation.
"If you give us your friend's name, we will allow you to finish your
work here."
"And then you'll kill me?"
"Of course. Can't have people with that sort of information running
around, can we?"
"Then why would I tell you?"
"Because if you do, at least you'll be remembered as one of the
thirty-eight that made phasing possible."
"No loss to me," Nene thought, "I'll be gone once I'm done here
anyway." She smiled. "Jeff Averys. 20706 Kingsford Lane, Chicago,
Illinois." Sending them looking through Chicago might keep them busy for a
while, even if there was a tower right there.
Madigan's eyes narrowed. "You better not be lying to me." She led her
back outside, where the rustle of the room stopped as soon as they
entered. "Continue your work." Was all Madigan said, "The isolinear chips
will contain the information."
****Genom's United States Tower-1:27AM, December 9, 2034****
Jason Mier walked slowly to the window of his office. He was third in
command at the tower, and the nightwatch officer. Things at the tower
never shut down. It just happened that less things went on during the
night. Of course, the night was also the time they would make attempts at
any illegal things that might need to be done. There were no AD Police in
the United States, and the N police didn't bother them the way the
Megatokyo tower was bothered.
"Sir," a messager ran up, "Direct order from Quincy. This man is to
be terminated." He handed him a small faxed letter. Mier read it through.
"Give the order." he said. Nothing special, things like this happened all
the time. However, he was surprised to see Quincy actually take an
interest in this man. In anyone...
*****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-7:05PM, December 9, 2034*****
"...I give you, your phaser." Madigan pulled a small rope. The
machine was huge, awesome. A single pad stood in the middle.
The scientists looked on to see what they had created. Quincy himself
was there to witness the event.
"I guess I should test it." The chairman gave in, knowing he had to
do it.
"No." Madigan stopped him. "Ms. Yuri will test it for us." She
smiled.
Nene stepped up. "I'd be glad to." She turned and smiled at everyone.
She turned back to Madigan. "Trying to get rid of me a little early,
aren't you?"
"Tell you what, if you live through this I'll give you an extra day
to live." Madigan smiled.
"And if I don't?" Nene joked.
"I'll send flowers to the funeral." Madigan said, serious.
Nene stepped up. The chairperson began throwing levers and pushing
buttons. Things Nene should know about, but she hadn't been paying
attention.
"Scanning...Shunting pattern to the buffer...Phase discriminator
online....Phase in five...four...three...two...one."
A bright flash of light. Nene was gone. "There's a twenty-second
pause for the purpose of the test." he explained, as if the scientists
didn't know.
Twenty seconds passed. Nene didn't reappear. Another ten. "Nene."
Mackie whispered. Another ten, and the room suddenly went into an uproar.
Everyone was clambering everywhere. Trying to find out what was wrong.
The Knight Sabers sat at their positions. Nobody said anything.
****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-11:56AM, December 10, 2034****
"We thank you for seeing us on such short time, Ms. Stingray."
Madigan smiled as Sylia stepped out of the limo.
"Oh, you know me. Anything for science." Sylia smiled as she adjusted
her sunglasses.
****Genom's United States Tower-3:04PM, December 10, 2034****
Keith Adams stood in his room at the top of the tower. His office
overlooked the entire city of Chicago. "Sir." Mr. Miers came in. "We
killed the person residing at the address Mr. Quincy gave us, but he was
not a one 'Jeff Averys'."
"Notify the Tokyo tower."
****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-6:20PM, December 10, 2034****
"Sir." Madigan bowed in Quincy's presence. "Jeff Averys does not
reside at the address given. In fact, the US tower finds nobody named Jeff
Averys in the entire city of Chicago."
"Probably false information. It does not matter, the interloper has
been taken care of."
"What if they find a way to bring her back?"
"Then kill them all. I'm certain the papers will love it when we
report the Knight Sabers killed our scientists."
"Always killing two birds with one stone, sir." Madigan smiled,
bowed, and left the room.
****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-1:02AM, December 11, 2034****
"So, you really can fix it?" Mackie whispered to Sylia as they
slipped through the halls.
"I'm not sure that it's broken."
"How can you say that? Nene's not here."
"Nene phased. I'm just not sure the targeting area was set
correctly."
"So what are you saying?"
"She's alive. Somewhere. I just don't know where. In any case, even
if I do fix the targeting area, it won't bring Nene back. I'm going to try
and locate her."
They crouched on the edge of the hallway as two 34-C boomers stood
still in the darkness. The tower was on power-down night mode. It would be
easy to knock out these two since internal sensors were offline. "Now."
she whispered.
Linna and Priss crashed through the wall from the air vent. They both
had their hardsuits on. In the vent, the other two hardsuits lay. It had
been hard work fitting them all the way up there. Mackie and Sylia suited
up as Linna and Priss made short work of the surprised boomers.
"Hurry. We don't have much time." Sylia turned on the phaser, and
started keying in the same coordinates the scientist put in before.
"Love the new clothes." Priss laughed at Mackie's black-and-gold
hardsuit.
"Funny." Mackie joked. He turned on the scanner. Linna jumped up on
the pad. "Nene can't even stand up without getting herself in trouble."
Somehow her jokes didn't seem as funny now.
"Just a few more..." Sylia whispered.
"Halt!" A 34-C appeared in the doorway.
"Sylia look-" Priss didn't bother to complete her sentence as she
opened fire on the boomer.
Just as Priss' shot hit, the boomer fired. Sylia instinctively dove
out of the way. The blast from Priss' weapon had knocked the boomer off
target, and it's blast hit the control console.
The phasing kicked in.
"Oh shit!" Priss screamed as she started to fade.
05~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****???*****
Nene sat up, her head hurt. "Ohhhh." she moaned. "Mackie?" she shook
her head. "Hey, where am I?" she stood up.
It looked like a rainforest, it sounded like a rainforest, it even
smelled like a rainforest. How the hell could she be here? If the
coordinates were off a little she would have ended up no further than the
base of the tower. How could she be in a rainforest?
Maybe it was just Linna and Priss playing tricks again. Maybe this
whole thing had been a trick. "Alright guys. The virtual reality was fun
for a while but now it's starting to get me mad..."
She waited for Priss or Linna to pop into the VR World and laugh at
her, or at least send a hello message through the system. "Guys? Guys!?!
Come on, this isn't funny! Guys!?!?"
She heard a rustling behind her. Aha! Priss! "I see you there Priss.
Don't try and hide from me."
"Lieutenant Collins. Identify yourself."
Nene peered into the underbrush. "This isn't a dream, is it?"
"Identify yourself."
"Nene Romanova."
"Romanova! Oh." A man in a hardsuit emerged from the bushes. He
bowed. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I didn't know what you looked like."
Nene stared at the hardsuit. "What's going on?"
Collins looked at her. "What are you doing without your hardsuit?
Maybe I should take you back to the base?"
"Yes. Maybe you better." Nene whispered.
*****Base?*****
Nene looked around at the underground base. Where the hell had this
phaser set her? Terminator 2? People were wandering through streets in
this huge undergorund city. Collins led her through a series of buildings
until he came to a group of officers.
"Collins, with Mrs. Romanova to see the admiral." The officers
suddenly stood, saluted, and moved out fo the way. They continued down the
hallway until they came to a door. Collins knocked.
"Come in." A voice.
Collins opened the door. "Ms. Vision, Mrs. Romanova to see you." He
saluted and left.
Reika Chang swiveled in her chair. Both Nene and Reika gasped. "Nene,
you look so young. Plastic surgery?" Reika joked. It had been Reika's
voice she heard, but this voice was so different. Of course, Reika's looks
had changed even more. She wore a patch over her right eye. Her clothing
left her left shoulder exposed, and Nene could see a scar along it, which
ran deeper into her chest, until the clothing hid it.
"What's going on here?" Nene asked.
"You look just like you used to how many...a dozen years ago?"
"What? What year is it? Where are we?"
*****???*****
Sylia opened her eyes and sat straight up. Her helmet had cracked.
She threw it down, and shielded herself from the sun. She turned and saw
Mackie lying next to her. "Hey." she poked him. "Get up." she shook him a
little. Mackie started to waken.
"Halt, humans!" She turned. The biggest boomer she ever saw was
standing right behind her. Sylia's lips moved to say something, but
nothing came out.
The boomer raised it's arm cannon. It powered up. "Hardsuit class:
Unknown. Possible Risk to this unit: Unkown. Conclusion: Terminate."
Suddenly it froze.
"This unit detects an unusally large amount of ions detected in the
area. Possibility: Cloaked hardsuits."
"What?" Sylia didn't understand. Mackie was now wide awake, sitting
right next ot her. "What's going on?" he whispered.
"Not bad." Linna's voice came out of nowhere. Suddenly, a hardsuit
shimmered into view. Dozens of other suits appeared.
"Possible Risk to this Unit: Large Damage/Destruction. Conclusion:
Retreat and report." The boomer took off.
Linna's hardsuit ran up to Sylia and Mackie. "Sylia? Is it really
you? After all these years, and we thought you were dead."
"Who are you?" Sylia whispered.
The faceplate of the suit went up. "Don't you remember me, Sylia?
It's Linna."
*****???*****
"This is the true look of a victor." Largo looked down at Priss. He
attacked. Priss was beaten back. Largo knocked her down. His minions
arrived.
"I want power...Power enough to lay this bastard low..."
Priss woke up. What a realistic dream. It was so real...
Priss struggled to stand. Where was she? She looked around. Route
California. The AD Police tower. The Genom Tower. She was in Megatokyo
alright, but it looked so much worse. It was if a third Great Earthquake
had leveled the city again. She launched herself into the air. The entire
city seemed to have been almost completely destroyed. If it weren't for
the few telltale signs of Genom and the AD Police tower, she would have no
idea this was Megatokyo. What happened?
"See, I leave for one minute..." She joked to herself.
Priss launched herself in the only direction she could go. To the
only place that was standing more than a floor high. The tower. She landed
gently, and looked around.
"Priss?"
Priss turned around.
"Commander McNichol. At your service."
"Leon!?!?!"
"I must say I'm surprised to see you here. But my sensors tell me
your not a boomer. So what's going on?"
"I was going to ask the same question."
"Come on, I'll take you to Nene."
*****???*****
Linna felt an incredible pain in the back. As if she had just slammed
into a wall. She looked back. She had, but what had made her move like
that?
She looked back. The tower! She was in Megatokyo. She looked around.
No. She was with another tower. She bent down to look at a small sign on
the street. German.
She was in Germany. But this wasn't the same Germany as on
Earth...What was she thinking, it had to be the same one...didn't it? It
was the same, and yet, it was so different.
She heard a small noise. She started following it. She followed it
down below the tower. She froze as soon as she saw the small room. A
person looking a lot like Dr. Stingray was laughing with some others in
the middle of the room. What was going on here?
*****Johannesburg, South Africa-1507hours, March 5, 2047*****
"This is incredible." Nene whispered.
"Amazing." Reika said.
"So you come from a world where Priss died?"
"And you come from one where she lived?"
Nene had been talking with Reika for almost three hours. Reika said
she had only wanted to be called Vision now, since it was so much more
hopeful, but more importantly, she had told Nene where she was.
Nene was thirteen years in the future it what would be an alternate
reality. There seemed to be only one difference between her universe and
Vision's: Priss' tower fight. The day in 2033 had a dramatic impact on the
timeline. In the alternate reality, Priss' motoroid had malfunctioned, as
a result, she had never recieved her new suit, and died.
This set off a chain of events: Vision joined the Knight Sabers,
Sylia subsequently fell under Largo's control during the boomer
revolution, and the Megatokyo reactor was used as blackmail for the entire
world.
In a desperate attempt the Knight Sabers had finally saved Sylia.
Sylia had barely rejoined the Knight Sabers for a few months when she died
at the hands of the first ever G-class boomer.
Nene also learned that there were also 34-C's in this timeline, along
with the M-class, a larger-than-Doberman boomer who was the routine
patrollers for Largo's forces. The G-class were the size of the Sears
Tower and nearly invulnerable.
"So what is this place?"
"It's called a sect. It's unsafe for humans to live aboveground
anymore, with all the boomers, so we made these underground cities."
"How many are there?"
"That we know of? They change every day. Yesterday there were
twenty-three."
"Twenty-three? The entire human population lives in twenty-three
cities."
"What the human-boomer war didn't get, the boomers hunted down after
they won."
"What about the rest of the Knight Sabers?"
"Linna, Nene, and Mackie are still somewhere. I left Linna back in
one of the sects in the US before I came here."
"My friends will come looking for me. With the other Knight Sabers
here, we might have a chance of beating Largo."
"Beating Largo? Nene, we can fool the soliders into thinking we have
a chance, but in the end, it's a question of when the boomers will win,
not if."
"Look, we were working on a way to move through walls and stuff, I
think we accidentally discovered something much more important. This is a
gateway between universes, and time! We could rewrite history if we just
had another machine."
Vision's eyes seemed to become a little more hopeful. "There are only
three sects in the US: Dallas, Miami, and Seattle."
"Then we'll go as soon as you teach me how to use these new suits."
*****Texas, United States-1609hours, March 5, 2047*****
"Besides us, there are two other US sects, Seattle and Miami."
"Where are the other sects?"
Sylia, Mackie, and the alternate Linna sat around a table. They had
exchanged information about their worlds already. Mackie remained silent
as Sylia and Linna talked.
This alternate Linna was definatly different from her own. She had
long black hair, almost passing her hips. She carried a small scar under
her left eye. A new air of authority hovered around 'Admiral' Yamazaki.
"Two in Antartica. One by the North Pole. One in Canada, one in
Mexico. Three in South America. Two in Africa. Two in the Middle East.
Four in mainland Europe, plus one in London. One in Megatokyo. One in
Germany. One in Austraila."
"If Nene is here she'll already have been taken in by one of the
sects."
"If she's not dead."
"I'm not willing to concede that yet. How long will it take to get
confirmation from the sects as to weather Nene is there or not?"
"We can have answers from the US, Canada and Mexico sects within 24
hours. After that it will take some time."
"That will knock out four other sects, we'll wait for confirmation."
*****Megatokyo Tower Ruins-1100hours, March 5, 2047*****
"What do you mean 'That you know of'?"
"Well, it's possible there are some sects that aren't connected to
our network." Leon leaned back in his chair.
Priss wasn't taking the loss of her alternate very well, as if it
were some reflection on her fighting skills. She was also a little mad
that the "Nene" Leon had mentioned had not been the Nene she had been
looking for.
Priss now looked across the table at Nene, now eight years older that
her. She had let her hair grow a little longer. The girlish quality was
gone from her, whether the disrupted timeline or age had taken that from
her, Priss didn't know.
She turned to Leon. He didn't look any different than he had before.
He seeemed to be the same guy who she had ran out on during the first
superboomer incident back in '32. The same guy who sat polishing his gun
at his desk. The same guy who meddled into Genom's and the Knight Sabers'
business. The guy who wanted to be a major player but was only a pawn
because he worked for a puny orginization. This Leon, however, seemed to
have lost his joking quality.
"So how did you get involved in this?"
"The Revolution took a piece of everybody. I had gone to Dallas to
find Reika in hopes of finding the Knight Sabers, but I found neither.
When I got back, I found out Daley was dead. That's when I promised myself
I'd get the son-of-a-bitch who started this."
"So what do we do?" Priss turned back to Nene. She felt disgusted at
having to ask her, and yet, she felt like it was her place to be under
Nene, a feeling she hadn't ever felt before.
A feeling she hoped she would never feel again.
"Lieutenant." she called.
"Admiral?" A young man, who couldn't be more than sixteen, opened the
door.
"Alert the other sects that Priss from an alternate reality is here.
Tell them that we will be in Germany."
"Yes sir."
"Germany?" Priss wondered as the lieutenant closed the door.
"Yes."
"Who is there?"
"Mackie."
*****Berlin, Germany-1356hours, March 5, 2047*****
"Mackie." Linna still couldn't believe it. Mackie looked just like
his father, without a mushache, of course. The only difference that she
could find was that this Mackie had a considerably better build than
either Sylia's father or the Mackie from her universe.
"So. Let's assume Linna's not crazy and this really is happening.
What do we do?" Mackie smiled.
A lieutenant commander, or at least that's what he looked like
answered. "With all due respect, captain, I think we should do nothing.
Tell the other sects she's here. Let them come to us."
"No. We've got ot unify the sects. One big fighting force. We're
going to have Sylia and Priss back. You know, they said that nobody could
best Priss in fair one-on-one combat. With them on our side, we can't
lose."
"If we put all our people together we run the risk of getting
EVERYONE killed." another put in.
"All right! All right." Mackie tried to quiet them down. "As it is we
don't know if Linna's friends even materialized in the same timeframe as
her, we don't even know if they're on the same astral plane. Linna said
Sylia hadn't finished keying in the formula for the phaser, they could be
scattered anywhere in any number of galaxies. Do any of you know the
theory of IDIC?"
The rest remained silent. "Infinite Diversity in Infinite
Circumstances. For every possible thing that can happen in the universe, a
new one is created with that one millisecond changed. In the end,
thousands upon thousands of universes can pile up on each other. What are
the chances that all of Linna's friends landed here?"
"I guess that depends on how much got entered into the machine before
they phased..."
06~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
****Over the Atlantic-1639hours, March 7, 2047 (Alternate)****
Vision and Nene flew with a small squadron of Knight Sabers from
Johannesburg.
"So where is Largo's main headquarters?"
"In the boomer-human war, a decisive battle was fought at the
Illinois Genom Tower. Largo now holds control there. He also has a small
back-up base on Genaros."
"Safe plan, considering you humans can't make space shuttles."
"Or if we did, couldn't launch them without attracting every boomer
in the world."
"Where are the boomers built?"
"Atlantis. It's an underwater base. Everything Largo controls in both
main oceans is run from there. Almost every boomer made comes from
Atlantis."
"Where's Atlantis?"
"About three miles north of-" She broke off. "M-class!" she called
out.
"It's coming right at us," one of the members shouted.
The Knight Saber squadron slowed down, as did the M-class.
"Fourteen humans identified. Engaging."
Two 34-C's came out of an opening in the breastplate of the boomer.
Vision began telling who would attack what. Nene charged straight in.
"Nene, what the hell-"
"When I was in the Knight Sabers I got made fun of if I needed help
to take out a boomer."
"These aren't C-class."
"Then I'll be careful." Nene smiled. She had been happy to see they
had kept the four basic hardsuit types, they had also made four
intermediate suit types. Nene had chosen the one she had donned before.
The 'Mostly for hackers' type. It might have little weapons but Nene
preferred to win with her brain rather than her laser.
The eleven other members attacked the boomer. It swatted at the
Knight Sabers as if they were flies. Nene dodged around the side. She shot
her cables directly into the thing.
Vision had seen Nene do this before. "That's not going to work. By
the time you do any considerable damage to his system he'll have us all
killed."
Nene smiled, "I have a virus." She said.
"He's protected."
"Maybe from today's viruses, but I doubt Largo had the insight to
protect him from what would now be a 22 year old virus." She smiled, as
she sent the file she had created when she was eight over.
She still remembered the day she had written that virus. A boy had
been picking on her in school. She couldn't fight back physically, so she
created a virus and sent it to his father's computer, which crashed. The
father lost millions.
Needless to say, the boy never bothered her again.
It didn't look as if the boomer would bother them again either. At
once, both of it's main thrusters kicked out, and it fell straight into
the ocean.
"One down." Nene turned in Vision's direction.
"You can't see me now, but I'm smiling." Vision said. Nene laughed.
*****Dallas-1911hours, March 7, 2047 (Alternate)*****
"Sylia! SYLIA!" Linna ran down the hall. "We got it!"
Sylia and Mackie turned just in time to avoid being knocked over by
Linna. "Nene was in the Johanassburg sect. Priss was in the Megatokyo one.
Priss is flying off to Germany and Nene's coming here."
"Then they are all here."
"Yes! I've already sent word to the Germany sect for their forces to
meet us here. Plus, look at this."
She handed Sylia a small grayscale picture. "Look familiar?"
"The phaser!"
"Exactly. Intel got it out of the Illinois Tower. Sylia, we've got
it."
Mackie seemed happy for the first time since he'd woken up. "All
right! Sis, we're going to get back home."
Sylia smiled. "Thank you, Linna." She turned to Mackie. "Come with
me."
As soon as she was sure she was out of earshot distance Sylia said,
"She's hiding something."
"What?"
"I don't know, but she's hiding something."
"Sylia, if we can't trust ourselves who can we trust?"
"I don't know. But just because they look, sound, and act like our
friends doesn't mean they are. Remember that."
"But sis-"
Sylia held up her hand for silence.
*****Berlin-0745hours, March 8, 2047 (Alternate)*****
Priss smiled as she met the first girl from her world in the past few
days. "Linna." she smiled, surprised to be hugged by her friend.
Mackie met Nene. "Honey..." he smiled. They hugged and kissed.
"Guess everyone needs everyone else a lot more here." Priss smiled.
"I'm going to love teasing Nene over this."
"Why would you tease me? He's my husband."
"WHAT!?!" Linna and Priss were shocked. Leon smiled. "Guess you
haven't seen the hottest couple ever yet?"
"Hottest couple ever?" Priss and Linna mimicked.
"Well, now that we're all together, I should say that our Dallas base
has picked up Sylia and Mackie. Nene is heading there also." Mackie
smiled.
Leon smiled. "Should I tell your men to prep their hardsuits?"
"Yes." Mackie smiled. "We're going to move out of the Germany sect,
we're all going."
Leon seemed surprised at this information, but nodded.
***Largo's Headquarters-2300hours, March 8, 2047 (Alternate)***
"Sir, Delta X4-01 reporting." A boomer paused in front of his
commander. Although the positions had different names, both the Knight
Sabers and Largo's army had the same basic system. While the Knight Sabers
worked on the old navy system, the boomers worked on the alphabet system.
"Yes." The Beta commander said. The D-class looked down on the
antiqued 33-C from a distance.
"One of the Tengos has recovered information on a secure link.
Appearently someone has entered this universe from an alternate reality."
The Beta's face could show no change, neither the metal nor the
programming allowed it. "I shall inform the Alpha."
Delta X4-01 returned to it's workstation. As he performed his job
flawlessly, he uplinked with three of his lower-class officers. He told
them silently of how Beta S506 was going to speak to the Alpha. The Omegas
could not feel surprise, but, finding the information both important and
unusual, they uplinked with others about it. The gossip ran through
Largo's boomer network.
*****Texas, US-452hours, March 12, 2047 (Alternate)*****
The Knight Sabers hugged and laughed as both reunions commenced.
Linna smiled at alternate self, as did Nene and Mackie.
"How are we going to know which one we're talking about?" Leon
smiled, until he realized he was speaking to himself. The Knight Sabers
from their own universe had each other, and now his Knight Sabers were
together. Was it just him, or did he seem like the only one who was alone?
"Leon. Leon!" Leon's head jerked up. "Sir?"
"Help our visitors from the Berlin sect into some rooms. How many are
there?" Linna asked.
"153, including myself and Mackie."
"Alright, make sure you have some room for our other guests too."
"Yes ma'am."
*****???*****
"They've arrived."
"Alright. Keep me updated."
"Yes sir."
The figure smiled to itself in the darkness. The players were all on
the field, the ball was in the air, soon the game would begin.
*****Atlantis-519hours, March 12, 2047 (Alternate)*****
Boomer A-002 sat at it's workstation, doing it's tasks quickly and
efficiently. Another boomer uplinked with it. The data about X4-01 was
transfered into it's memory banks.
"It is almost time." It thought. And it smiled.
***Largo's Headquarters-708hours, March 12, 2047 (Alternate)***
"Sir, P05 reporting." The D-class stepped into the large room in
which the Alpha sat. At one time this room had belonged to the top officer
in control of Genom's Illinois Tower.
"What is it Beta?"
"Sir. Tengos have obtained information that someone has entered this
reality from another, supposedly, the original five Knight Sabers."
"Does this have anything to do with the phaser?"
"Possibly. What should we do?"
"The humans do not have signifigant enough resources to build a
phaser machine. Do not bother."
"Yes sir, sorry to bother you." Beta P05 turned to leave.
"Unless..."
"Sir." The boomer paused.
"Unless they come for the phaser. In that case, destroy them."
"Yes sir." P05 left.
The Alpha turned back to the window. "So Priss, you have come for me
again, this time from another universe. How many times do I have to kill
you?" Largo's eye changed color to gold as he laughed.
07~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****Dallas, US-1400hours, March 13, 2047 (Alternate)*****
"Due to Atlantis being Largo's only main supply for boomers, we will
concentrate our main attacks there. A smaller force will attack Largo's
main headquarters first. Their job will be to simply cause a disturbance.
Once all the boomers head to assist, we will attack Atlantis." Vision
outlined the plan clearly and simply. "Sylia, you will lead the attack on
the headqu-"
"The Knight Sabers are my orginization. I will decide who goes
where." Sylia cut her off.
"Sis..." Mackie started. This idea of a conspiracy was going to far.
"I will lead the attack on Atlantis. Priss will lead the one against
Largo's HQ. Both Linnas and this universe's Mackie will be with her.
Everyone else is with me." She looked around the table. Her Knight Sabers
nodded in aggreement. Leon also seemed to agree. Linna's face wasn't
happy. The rest of the others faces were unreadable.
Simply for effect, she said. "Nene, you will stay here and guard the
sect." Nene almost jumped up, but Vision lifted her arm, and Nene sat
down. There was definatly some tension around.
"The attack will begin tomarrow."
*****Dallas, US-1743hours, March 13, 2047 (Alternate)*****
"Another." Sylia never went to bars much, in fact, except for the
Cest La Vie, she hadn't been into a bar since her freshman college year.
She couldn't remember the last time she had a beer, and today she had
drunk three.
"You look like someone who has a lot of problems." The bartender
smiled from below a hat, not a very outgoing person.
"Doesn't everybody?"
"I suppose. But your problem must be special."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because you look out of place, like you're not where you belong."
"Why do you say that?" Sylia downed part of the beer.
"Because the last time I saw you was at your funeral." The bartender
pushed back his hat. Faugo looked out at Sylia. "Hello darling."
"Faugo!" Sylia smiled and stood. They hugged over the counter. Sylia
herself found it strange that she was doing such a thing.
"You're a lot different from the Sylia I knew."
"No, I'm the same, just feeling a little strange." Sylia smiled as
she sat back down.
"Well, then maybe I can show you something to make you feel
better..." He turned and lifted up the tapestry behind him. Behind it was
the telltale sign of the Cest La Vie. "I managed to save a part of it,
before the owner had to close. You and I were his most common customers,
you know."
Sylia smiled. "So what have you been doing with yourself?"
"Keeping busy. After 'Doomsday' the Knight Sabers didn't need me and
I was out of a job. Considering I was barely keeping up with my debts when
you hired me, you can guess I didn't last long." He coughed, rather
roughly.
"Are you alright?" Sylia reached over, but Faugo pushed her away, the
first time he had tried to keep them apart.
"It's my own fault."
"What?"
"Smoking." He put his hand over his chest. "Lung Cancer. You ought to
stop while you can..." He smiled.
"Hey, bartender. Scotch on the rocks." A man sat down on the other
end of the bar.
"Sorry, Sylia. Duty calls." Faugo replaced his hat and went to serve
his new customer. Sylia waited awhile, but when she saw that he wasn't
coming back she put down a twenty and left. She wasn't going to need the
money anyway.
*****Dallas, US-1300hours, March 14, 2047 (Alternate)*****
"Sit." Sylia ordered Vision. Perhaps Vision was the one she
understood least now. She had not known her that well when they had first
met when she tried to kill Quincy, and now she seemed to know her even
less.
"Sir?" She sat.
"Don't call me sir. The Knight Sabers are not a military operation."
Sylia didn't approve of what you have made the Knight Sabers into, either.
"I'm sorry, Sylia. There were so many people who needed to be helped.
There was only one way we could inspire the hope we needed to keep the few
of us left alive. The name 'Knight Sabers' means more now than it did
during your time."
"I don't aggree. Anyway," she paused. "I've noticed something quite
interesting. These suits from each of the sects are not the same. Don't
you keep updated files of technology?"
"It's too much of a security risk and requires too many resources."
"No, I don't think so." She smiled, she would show her superiority
over Vision now and hopefully gain her trust. "The Johannesburg group have
perfected Linna's hardsuit type, and keeping low and out of sight is sure
to help in the jungle areas."
"It does." Vision nodded.
"Do you know the Berlin sect has created a forcefield around their
hardsuits? Making them nearly impervious to all projectiles while it is
up? I'm sure that helps since they have nothing for cover there."
"Well-"
Sylia cut her off. "This Dallas sect has developed cloaking devices
to make the suits invisible and nearly undetectable. Considering there's
no cover here that is a good idea."
"Yes and-"
"The Megatokyo sect has increased effiency and weapon power. The
scematics I have requested from the Miami sect show they have upgraded the
interfacing equipment in Nene's hardsuit. Seattle has made stop-on-a-dime
thrusters..."
"What are you saying?" Vision was getting angry.
"I'm saying if all the humans took all the improvements they've made
seperately and shared their information, you would have beaten Largo by
now."
"No, you're saying I don't know how to do my job as leader of the
Knight Sabers." Vision jumped up. "After the war we had to make a decision
on whether or not to have the sects work together or seperately. I chose
to have the sects work on their own."
"Then that was the wrong choice."
"The increased traffic would have alerted the boomers and half of
these sects wouldn't be here today." Vision leaned over the desk, staring
Sylia right in the eye.
"I don't know who you are, but you are not the Reika Chang I know."
Sylia leaned in, her eyes narrowing. "I don't like you. And I don't like
your friends. I know you have your own motives in all this, and the second
I can prove that I will. I just want to get out of here and go back home."
"Well, I want you out of here too."
"Good, we are aggreed." Sylia sat back down. "We leave for Atlantis
in one hour. By that time I want hardsuits with all of the upgrades for MY
four Knight Sabers to be ready. Do we understand each other?"
"Yes." Vision turned to leave.
"You're dismissed." Sylia smiled as Vision looked back scornfully.
***Three Miles North of Hawaii, Above Atlantis-1425hours, March 14, 2047
(Alternate)***
Sylia leaned back. Three cloaked ships had taken them directly above
Atlantis, now three cloaked submarines would plow directly into it, and
the Knight Sabers would invade. Then they had a short amount of time to
get out before the place was flooded by the breach in the hull of
Atlantis.
"Priss has started the attack on Largo's HQ." The alternate Nene
reported.
"Alright," Sylia said "Let's go."
All three ships ran headlong into Atlantis, cracking the hull of the
underwater station. The Knight Sabers poured into the station as the
confused boomers tried to decide whether to try and repair the hull or try
and stop the intruders. They hadn't seen a fight down here since Atlantis
was built.
*****Atlantis-1441hours, March 14, 2047 (Alternate)*****
"Let's get out of here!" Sylia screamed. The underwater factory was
nearly flooding. The fight hadn't gone very well. That didn't matter, the
factory was going underwater. Only the Marine Boomers would live through
that.
All the remaining fighters piled onto the submarines. "Shields."
Sylia called out as the last one was on board.
The other commanders reported from their subs, and they left. The
shields on the submarines had been specifically tuned so that the water
molecules wouldn't be let in. It required a huge amount of energy, but it
was worth it.
*****Dallas, US-1352hours, March 15, 2047 (Alternate)*****
"Good job." Vision tossed a pile of papers in front of Sylia. "The
only thing you succeded in was getting some of my men killed."
Sylia picked up the report. Intelligence had decoded a part of a
communique. It said that Atlantis had been salvaged. It was under heavy
damage, and it would be a while before it made any more boomers, but it
was still salvagable.
"It does not matter." Sylia looked at Vision. "We've stopped their
boomer construction. How many did we lose?"
"125 at Atlantis, 27 in Illinois."
"Alert the Seatle and Miami sects, we're going to have to get more
people. Tell them they will both combine with this sect here."
"What!" Vision jumped straight up. "Sylia, these sects have worked
independantly since they were created. You can't go ordering them around
like that."
"I told you, isolating sects was your main mistake. And, as you have
made so painfully clear to me...these people are Knight Sabers. I am their
leader. If they do not wish to be Knight Sabers anymore I will personally
fly over and make sure they are taken care of, according to MY charter of
the orginization, and I think you know what that means?"
"You would fight, kill, one of our own when you could be fighting
them?"
"That depends on what you consider 'our own'. I consider everyone who
does not help us hinders us, and that makes them our enemy. Give the
order!"
Vision stood up to leave. After what had just happened with Atlantis,
people were seeing that Sylia was a leader, like her. No longer were
people thinking Sylia was their all-holy leader sent to save them. She
just needed for Sylia to screw up once, and finally she would be back in
control of what was rightfully hers...
08~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****Dallas, US-0700hours, March 16, 2047 (Alternate)*****
"Intel on the phaser says it's 97 percent complete and will be ready
by tomarrow." Nene sat across from herself at the daily meeting, she had
disliked the younger version of herself. It reminded her of a time long
past...
"Nene?" Sylia looked at the younger double.
"I've created some arm bands we can use to keep us within our
timeframe. They will allow us to return to the the exact moment we left."
Nene held up a small watch-like object. "We can use them to return to this
time, phase again, and when we end up in the right place, simply
deactivate and destroy the arm bands. I've even used information from our
now-outdated hardsuits to create this." She pressed a button on the side
of the small band. A box on it flashed red. "Yellow is for our universe.
Red is for this universe. Green will be for another universe. Since it is
concievable for us to not get to the right place on the first try, this is
going to help determine where you are. You can do anything you want when
it's green, but when it's yellow or red, try not to do anything in case
you mess up the timeline."
"We don't know what will happen if you do something that prevents
this timeline from actually occuring." Sylia leaned back. "Vision?"
"We have a total of 1419 fighters now that Seatle and Miami have
joined us."
"That should be enough for an all-out attack on Largo's HQ. He's
still hurting from not having Atlantis and all the boomers we destroyed
there." Linna added.
"Alright." Sylia leaned forward. "We attack at this time tomarrow.
There's no going back." She looked around the table. "If anyone wants to
get off this ride, now's the time."
The rest of the Knight Sabers nodded, both Sylia's own and Vision's.
*****Atlantis-1432hours, March 16, 2047 (Alternate)*****
Boomer A-002 looked around at the debris the Knight Sabers had
caused. Lights had been dimmed to an incredibly low level. Shields were
needed to make sure Atlantis didn't flood and they ate up almost all of
the power.
It turned back toward it's monitor. The false information about
Atlantis had been intercepted. The Knight Sabers would believe it would
remain unoperable for less time than it would. They would be completely
online in less than five hours. The Knight Sabers wouldn't know what hit
them...
A-002 leaned back. The war was not going well for the humans, but it
would all change soon...
*****???*****
"Seatle and Miami have joined with Dallas. Along with Berlin, and a
dozen fighters from Megatokyo and Johannesburg."
"And our operative within their orginization?"
"They know nothing about her."
"Good, see to it that it stays that way. Prepare the forces, we will
be needed soon."
"Yes sir."
"Go then." Soon, everything would be as it was. The day of the boomer
was ending. It was all a matter of time.
*****Dallas, US-0630hours, March 17, 2047 (Alternate)*****
This was Sylia's 12th day on this world. Hopefully, it would be her
last. She looked at the people swarming around her. The Knight Sabers.
Would it have been better if it were this way? More of a power, less of an
orginization? What would have happened if she had recruited six people
instead of three? Or nine? Or twelve? Would the Knight Sabers be looked
upon as an underground orginization, like the mob?
Or would the Knight Sabers become something else, something of a
savior group? Would Sylia become the White Knight, poised to save the
world from the clutches of Genom? She thought of the last "White Knight"
she had known, back in 2031. Priss' friend. She remembered what happened
to him, and didn't find the idea appealing.
"Move out!" She ordered. They took off.
*****Atlantis-0645hours, March 17, 2047 (Alternate)*****
"But Sir..." A-002 pleaded.
"A-002, you were one of my first," Largo leaned back in his chair,
"and I trust you. I realize that transferring the boomers will require
tremendous resources on your part, but protecting the headquarters is the
first priority. We will finish repairs on Atlantis later."
"Yes sir." A-002 finally yielded.
"Do the Knight Sabers have the false information?"
"Charlie-341 sent it out yesterday. They intercepted, they believe
repairs on Atlantis will take longer than it actually will, even with the
boomers diverted, we will be fully operational again in less than five
hours."
"Good work, A-002. The humans will be destroyed once and for all.
Make sure to send the boomers." Largo terminated the connection.
A-002 sat for a while to calculate this new information. Finally it
turned around and flipped a switch. "All D, M, 33-C and 34-C boomers are
to report to headquarters to fight the Knight Sabers. Repeat all D, M,
33..."
***Largo's Headquarters-0658hours, March17, 2047 (Alternate)***
Sylia closed her eyes. She didn't feel certain of something. There
were just too many factors to figure in. While she had learned much of the
English language, and almost all of the officers also spoke Japanese,
Sylia thought of the chances of there being a communication gap...
She shook her head. A trivial thing to worry about. The chances of
that happening are nearly impossible...
Vision's group was holding off the southern perimeter of the city,
Priss' group from the west. Sylia had the luxury of attacking from the
north, where there would be less opposition due to the water.
She turned to Linna. With Priss leading one of the other groups,
Linna was the only one Sylia counted on as her first in command. "Give the
order." She whispered. Linna nodded solemnly, as if someone had just died.
***Largo's Headquarters-0716hours, March17, 2047 (Alternate)***
Sylia's blade sliced through a 34-C. On her normal plane of
existance, these things would be both new and challenging. With this suit
and the information she now had, the boomers were neither.
"Sylia!" Priss' voice came in with a panic, something Priss usually
didn't have. "Sylia! Reinforcements."
"What?!?!" Sylia was so surprised she hung in mid-air for a second.
She saw her forcefield fizzle in front of her as a boomer blast damaged
it. She flew to a safe distance before continuing her conversation.
"That's impossible. We have barely been fighting for a quarter of an
hour."
"I know. I think they're from Atlantis."
"Atlantis? They aren't even back online yet."
"Looks like we intercepted some wrong information." Vision's voice
cut in, sounding almost happy. Of course, this could only help whatever
Vision was planning, since it was obvious she didn't accept Sylia as a
leader.
"Somebody set us up."
"Priss, it sounds as if yuor accusing me of something..." Vision's
voice came in with glee.
"Well, on whose watch was that info intercepted?"
"Enough." Sylia said. "We'll have to retreat for n-"
Sylia was interrupted by barrage of machine gun fire. She flew east
as fast as she could, keeping close to the ground. She halted suddenly,
almost slamming into the leg of a M class. She looked around, she was
surrounded.
She turned to fly back the way she came, only to be blocked by a trio
of D classes.
"Sylia?" Priss' voice came in over the radio.
"Get everyone out of here, NOW! That's an order." She landed and
surveyed her enemies, a total of two M classes, nine D classes, and at
least a dozen C classes of the 33 and 34 type. Her sword slid back out of
it's sheath.
The boomers moved in on her. The silence was incredibly errie. At
least the boomers on her world would gloat when they were about to make a
kill.
Sylia activated her shielding. It wouldn't survive more than a few
laser hits, but it would buy her some time.
"Sylia!" The alternate Linna's voice cackled as her form shimmered
into view. "Hold on. Help is..."
The boomers all opened fire on this new adversary.
"NO!" Sylia screamed as the rockets, lasers and bullets all hit
Linna. She had just decloaked, there was no way she could have gotten her
shields up...
A dozen other fighters decloaked and started opening fire on the
boomers. Sylia ran over to Linna's body, forgetting about her boosters.
"Linna..." She whispered as she bent down and cradled Linna's head in
her arms. Linna's helmet was completely gone, her hardsuit had been
reduced to small strips of sparking rags, and her softsuit was red with
blood.
"Sylia." Sylia could barely hear her voice. Linna was struggling to
hold on a few more seconds. A fighter till the end...
"S-sylia...It doesn't matter...what Vision s-says. We gotta stop
these things i-if we're going to live..." Linna's voice became more and
more pained with each passing word. "If things are g-going to be...the way
they used to..."
*****Dallas-1400hours, March18, 2047 (Alternate)*****
Vision stood before a groups of thousands. The largest she had seen
since the war. She cleared her throat. "Back in 32, I recieved word that
my sister had been killed. I heard it was from a boomer. I became so...so
charged with hatred, that I decided that there was nothing left to do but
kill the man who had inadvertantly killed my sister." She paused for a
moment.
"That man was Quincy, the leader of Genom Corporation. While
pretending to tour Megatokyo as a chance to get close to Quincy, I met a
young woman named Linna Yamazaki. And even though I felt I had lost
because my assassination of Quincy failed, I won. I won because I had
gained a friend. When I became part of the Knight Sabers, she showed me
the ropes. She was always there for me when I needed her, in good times
and bad."
"And...When Sylia died, and I became leader of the Knight Sabers, she
not only became the person that I trusted my life to, but the person that
many of us have come to depend on. She has fought at our sides, sacrificed
for the good of all, and will forever live in our hearts..." Vision
stepped down from the podium.
To everyone's surprise, Sylia moved toward the podium.
"What are you doing?" Vision asked in a low tone. "You have no
right..."
"I have every right." Sylia said loud enough that Vision was sure at
least half of everyone there heard.
Sylia stepped up. "I can't say that I was exactly friends with this
Linna. I hadn't even known she existed two weeks ago." Sylia paused. "What
I can say is that I knew Linna Yamazaki perhaps better than anyone else
here."
"I found Linna sitting inside a darkened theatre, crying softly to
herself because she had been turned down for a play. And as I watched that
young girl, she turned herself from tears to happiness again in the span
of five minutes. I was so intrigued that I walked in and talked to her."
"Considering she came from the streets, and that she had been left
alone after her parents had died, she was surprisingly outgoing. She
confided in a total stranger what had happened to her. Fifteen minutes
later she concluded our conversation by saying 'I'm sorry but I have to go
now, I hear there is a job opening at a little shop down the street.'"
Sylia paused to look at the still living Linna. She was smiling and
nodding, although she had tears running down her face.
Sylia turned back to the rest. "I was so impressed by the way she
picked herself up...The way she walked with her head tall out of the
theatre, that I caught up to her outside and told her my story. I told her
I could provide her with some food and some money if she would come with
me. She was so trusting that she did, something I am very glad for...She
became my second Knight Saber."
"Now, I can't say I know for certain what she was like to the rest of
you, but I knew I could always count on her to be there. I knew that I
could count on her to the end, no matter what the situation...And in a
way, that is exactly what happened.....She saved my life." She quickly
retreated from the podium, finding herself crying.
She hadn't cried since her father had died...Since the day she had
recieved the data disk. It was so strange. In a way, she didn't even know
this Linna that well. Who was even to say that those events took place in
this timeline, and yet, she felt as if she had lost a part of herself...
09~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****Dallas-2319hours, March18, 2047 (Alternate)*****
Sylia was interrupted from her thinking by a knock at her door. "Who
is it?" she asked.
"Guess." Now the only Linna's voice answered. "Can I come in?"
"Yes." Sylia called as she picked up her book she hadn't touched
since last night. A book that chronicled the events of the Human-Boomer
war.
"How are you doing?" Linna closed the door behind her and sat on the
edge of Sylia's bed.
"Fine, I was reading this book on the future." Sylia smiled.
"It's okay Sylia, you don't have to lie to me, I won't tell anyone."
Linna walked over to a window. She wondered why they even had them, the
artifical light was the same outside as it was inside. The brown walls
depressed her.
"What are you talking about?" Sylia looked over.
"You like to drink your tea when you read your book. That tea is
cold." She poineted to the cup on her nightstand.
Sylia replaced the book. "I can't fool you." She picked up her tea
and emptied it in the bathroom sink. "How did you know it was cold?" She
asked absentmindedly as she stared at the empty glass.
"I didn't." Linna smiled, "I saw you crying today at the burial. I
was just hoping you didn't dismiss my death THAT quickly."
Sylia smiled. "No, I didn't. It's strange."
"Why?"
"I didn't even know her that well, and..."
"Oh, don't fool yourself Sylia. She's me and I'm her, and that's all
there is to it. You knew her as well as you know me."
Sylia sat back down. "I know. I guess....I'm just afriad of losing
you."
Linna sat down next to her. "I should be honored, Sylia Stingray is
actually worrying herself over me."
Sylia smiled as she turned to Linna. "Don't ever change."
"Well, I was thinking of growing my hair longer..." Linna laughed as
Sylia rolled her eyes.
*****Atlantis-0121hours, March19, 2047 (Alternate)*****
"Computer, how many artifical life forms are there on Atlantis."
A-002 found it easier to speak to the main computer than uplink with it.
The boomers still had not returned from the battle days ago. Tenative
information suggested that one of the main leaders of the Knight Sabers
was killed. Repairs had taken much longer than thought, and were still not
complete, though the lower floors were almost up to their usual effiency.
"139."
"How many would be destroyed if the shielding on levels 2 through 21
were disengaged?"
"Unable to calculate. Depends upon individual boomer response time."
"Hypothetical answer."
"94."
Fourty-five boomers? Would that be enough.
"Computer, is there any way I can force boomers in levels 22 through
43 up into the higher levels?"
"Affirmative."
"How?"
"By causing an uncontrolled overload in the main reactor."
"Computer, shunt power from life support on all decks to the main
reactors."
"Transferring power will cause an uncontrolled overload in the main
fusion reactors." The computer couldn't put the pieces together.
"Transfer it anyway." As the computer beeped out the warning of the
overload of the reactors, A-002 opened a communications channel.
As a figure appeared on the other side of the screen, A-002 smiled.
"Atlantis will be destroyed within a half-hour. I will return to the tower
with the information that we were attacked by an unkown group."
"Good. Stay at the tower. Do not let them transfer you."
"There will be an investigation. I will be forced to remain there
during that."
"The Knight Sabers will attack again in a few days. When they do, we
will make our move. I expect you to do the same."
"Yes sir." A-002 terminated the communication.
"Computer, deactivate the shielding around Atlantis on all decks
except this one."
"Doing so will cause a hull breac-"
"I know that. Do it anyway."
"Shielding deactivated."
"Computer, how long until deck one's hull collapses?"
"Four minutes, thirty-six seconds."
"Computer how many artificial life form are functioning on Atlantis?"
"54, correction, 46, correction 38, corr-"
"That's enough computer, prepare a single jettison pod."
"Pod prepared on deck one."
"Lock all other pods. Do not allow any pods other than my own to
leave the station. Access code: Omicron, Omicron, Alpha, Tengo, Delta,
Six."
"All pods locked down."
A-002 climbed into it's escape pod. "Computer, how many artificial
life forms are functioning aboard Atlantis, just a single number this
time."
"21."
"Computer, deactivate all power except for power to the escape
systems. Delete the entire computer core except for all files required to
keep my previous lock-down order intact and the escape files."
"Entire erasure will require 22 minutes. Beginning now."
"Computer, eject this pod."
"Affirmative."
A-002 smiled to itself. There was no possible way that any
information could be recovered from Atlantis. If the hull didn't
completely break with the rush of water, the core would be gone along with
anything that might tell A-002's little secret. The investigation would
pose more questions, but there would be no reason to believe A-002 was
telling a lie.
*****Dallas-0700hours, March19, 2047 (Alternate)*****
"It's time we tried another strike on the tower." Sylia said bluntly
as she walked into the meeting.
Vision jumped to her feet, this time fully ready to combat Sylia's
decision. "Are you crazy? We lost enough in the first strike. Linna's body
is bearly-"
"Shut the hell up, Vision." Priss pushed her chair back and put her
feet up on the table.
"You want to see us all killed?"
"No, just you." Priss shot back.
"Stop bickering like little children." Sylia was using her stern and
resolute voice, it would be hard for Vision to keep her ground against
Sylia now. "Largo will not expect another attack so soon. Especially if
one of the boomers brought back word of Linna's death. We were beaten back
last time because the support caught us off guard. Now they don't have any
more surprises."
"Are you sure of that?" Vision asked.
"I don't know, let's ask Vision's boss." Priss smiled from her seat,
rather enjoying cutting Vision down.
Vision flew into an outrage. "Are you suggesting I-" Mackie and Nene
stood up to hold her back.
Linna saw her chance to shut Vision up for the rest of the meeting
right now. She stood. "I don't know about you, but *I* agree with Sylia."
Vision was caught off guard by Linna saying something, along with
what was happening and her Linna's death, she decided to back down before
she did something that would make Sylia win over her Nene and Mackie. They
were essential to her plan, and she needed to have both of their
cofidences...
"Whatever you say, you're the leader." Vision said sarcastically as
she sat down.
**Largo's Headquarters-1343hours, March 19, 2047 (Alternate)**
"I am very dissapointed in this news, A-002." Largo swiveled in his
chair to face his underling.
"As I said sir, we were already damaged from the Knight Saber attack,
and this new group completely destroyed us."
"You realize that I now have no way of producing new boomers?"
"Yes sir."
"I will be forced to withdraw all my boomers to this area while I
build another factory power?"
"Yes sir."
"Do you have any idea what freedom that will give the humans in other
parts of the world?"
"Permission to speak freely sir."
Largo was intrigued by the request, nobody had ever asked him that
before. "Granted."
"It wasn't my fault and you're blaming me for it, sir."
"Are you suggesting it was my fault?" Largo eyed A-002.
"Permission to speak freely again, s-"
"Yes. Yes. Yes."
"You are the one that transfered the boomers, sir."
Largo leaned back to consider this new information. "As usual, you
have welcome insights, A-002. You will remain here at the tower while an
investigation is conducted."
"Of course, sir."
"Dismissed."
"Thank you, sir." A-002 bowed and turned to leave. It smiled as it
waited for the elevator.
*****???*****
"Sir, the Knight Sabers have moved from Dallas, it appears they are
attacking the tower again."
"Good. We leave now. Try and get a message directly into A-002's CPU,
but only if there is a zero percent chance of it being detected, do I make
myself clear?"
"Yes sir."
A large supersonic jet plane took off from Megatokyo.
10~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**Largo's Headquarters-0123hours, March 20, 2047 (Alternate)**
"Let's do it." Sylia whispered.
Priss and Vision's hardsuit voices came on as they opened a channel
to the entire cloaked Knight Saber battalion. In a way, the original
defeat had a good side. Now there were less people and there was more time
to make Sylia's new hardsuit types. Now almost every member had a new
suit.
"Knight Sabers...Go!" Sylia called as she decloaked.
The D-class boomer guard turned to see Sylia decloak. It launched
itself at her, only to find a wall of other hardsuits decloaked. It went
up in smoke before it had the chance to fire off a round.
*****Inside the Tower-Same time*****
A-002 recieved a communique from it's partners. A simple message, it
read simply: "They are moving. Act now."
A-002 walked over to the terminal. "Computer, is the requested
hardsuit configuration ready?"
"It is on floor 13."
"Computer, shunt all power from offensive systems to defensive
systems."
"Doing so will cause an uncontrolled overload of the defensive
systems and take the offensive systems offline."
"I know, do it anyway." A-002 looked around to see if anyone was
looking.
"Unable to comply, execution requires four command-level codes to
execute."
Security measures. At least when A-002 had been controller of
Atlantis it had known how to get past every sort of block. Now it would
have a small problem. Actually it would be a large problem if it hadn't
planned ahead.
A-002 accessed it's memory banks and pulled up voice I.D.'s of three
other Beta-level officers. Using the information it had recieve from it's
allies during it's stationing on Atlantis, it knew their security codes.
It switched to another voice. "Computer, I comply with the
aforementioned request. Clearance code: Tengo, Omega, Charlie."
Another voice. "Computer, I also concur. Clearance code: Omicron,
Six, Nine, Delta."
It's final voice. "Computer, execute the command. Clearance code:
Four, Alpha, Nine, Alpha, Two."
"All power has been diverted from offensive systems to defensive
systems." The computer hadn't needed to say this, as the resounding
explosion from the defensive grid told A-002 all it needed to know.
A-002 stepped into an elevator. It didn't have much time. "Floor 13."
A-002 stepped out directly near the area it's hardsuit was being
stored. It put it on.
"A-002, I am required to stop you." A D-class boomer arrived in the
doorway. "You have deliberately destroyed an imperial item, namely, the
offensive and defensive capabilities of this tower. This crime is
punishible by termination."
A-002 smiled. It simply lifted it's arm and fired it's laser directly
into the head of the D-class.
"My name, is Sylvie."
*****Outside*****
"Sylia, the tower has lost all abilites to stop us. The only thing
stopping us are individual boomers." Priss' voice came in from over the
comm channel.
"Nene, how's that possible."
"Well it-" Both Nene's said at once. "Go ahead." The older one said.
"No, really." The younger Nene's voice seemed happy.
"Well, it looks as if someone transferred all the power from the
offensive to the defensive grids, knocking both offline."
"How long till they're back on?" Vision asked.
"Over an hour." The younger Mackie loved the little action he was
allowed to have in the back lines, and really wanted to be closer to the
front, but Sylia wouldn't allow it.
"Hello? Can anyone hear me?"
"Who is that?"
"Sylvie!"
"Priss? Is that you?"
"What are y-"
"Sorry, but I can't talk. I'm heading north-east. I'm being chased by
about a dozen boomers of different types..."
"Keep flying, we'll help you." Sylia smiled. It looked as Priss' old
friend was back.
Sylvie flew in, wearing a Priss-configuration suit. "Make sure she
gets to safety, no matter what." Sylia said to her group. The bubble that
was Sylvie's shielding continued flashing red from the continuous boomer
firing that was hitting it. It would collapse any second.
Sylvie flew right past the front line. Sylia and the rest of her
group opened fire on the boomers. Three were destroyed instantly. The
fourteen others flew right past the front line as if there was nothing
there. All the Knight Sabers turned and fired on the boomers. This time
five went down. There were nine to go. Sylia flew in, stabbing at one with
her sword. Her sword was now able to be charged with energy. It had turned
into a stabbing sort of version of Linna's Knuckle Bomber from her time.
"Sylvie, cloak! Break off." Sylia called out.
Sylvie obeyed. The boomers all fanned out trying to get close enough
to pick up a cloaked hardsuit. That made them much easier targets. The
Knight Sabers picked them off one-by-one.
**Largo's Headquarters-0157hours, March 20, 2047 (Alternate)**
"Sylia, this isn't going so well." Priss was fighting alongside Sylia
now. The entire group had completely surrounded the headquarters. The fact
they were so spread out was causing problems.
"Maybe we should retr-" Leon started.
"No, their grid is down, we caught them off guard, Atlantis is down.
We take them out here and now or die trying." Sylvie said.
*****Outside Chicago-Same time*****
"Sir. We're nearing Chicago."
"Good. What's the situation?"
"The Knight Sabers are fanned out. Our contact has destroyed the
enemies offensive and defensive grids. They'll need our help."
"A dramatic entrance. They'll love it. Are they all there?"
"The Linna from this time is dead. Sylia, Vision, Priss, Linna, both
Nenes and Mackies and Sylvie are all there."
"Then the group is all back together. Wonderful. I will deploy along
with you."
"We'll arrive in less than a minute."
*****Back inside Chicago-Same time*****
"M-class heading our way Sylia." Sylvie warned. Sylia's group had
been reduced to a baker's dozen. Priss, Sylvie, Leon, Mackie and Sylia
were five of them.
"Hey, what the hell is that?" Priss looked as a sonic boom hit her
ears. A huge supersonic jet arrived. It hovered overhead as some boomers
deployed.
"Oh shit!" Priss turned to fire on the boomers.
"We' can't win now." Leon moved closer to Priss.
"Sylia-" Mackie began, but fell silent.
To everyone's surprise, the boomers began to fire on the other
boomers.
"I bet you guys are happy to see me." A man in a highly modified K-12
dropped from the jet.
"Daley!!!!" Leon shouted. He flew at his friend. Daley stuck out his
hand for a mid-air shake, but was surprised when he was hugged instead. "I
thought you were dead!" Leon seemed charged with energy.
"We have to talke later, Leon." Daley smiled. "It looks like we're
all together again, so let's get rid of Largo once and for all."
Everyone cheered as Sylia once again called out "Knight Sabers...Go!"
With the help of the boomers, the Knight Sabers all penetraded into
the tower. They found the room with the phaser on the 57th floor. It
seemed logical to find it only in the middle and most pretected area.
"Come on." The older Mackie led his way.
"Hey, do you-"
"Don't worry, I have my own armband. We stole it from your files."
Daley smiled.
"I got a copy from Daley." Sylvie smiled.
"You have to tell me how you stole our top-secret files." Vision took
of her helmet as she and Sylia walked over to the control panel.
"Maybe someday..." Daley smiled as he stepped on the pad. Sylia began
entering the coordinates as the others stepped up onto the pad.
"Sylia watch-" Linna suddenly called.
"Would you step away from the panel?" Vision held her arm cannon
directly at Sylia. Mackie and Nene from the alternate universe did the
same with the people on the pad. "Get on the pad."
"Of all the low-down..." Nene started.
"I trusted you, Vision." Linna called.
"Well, I really am sorry Linna. But I have to betray you in order to
save you." She looked up for a second. "I know you don't understand..."
"Stop intruders!" Two D-class boomers stood at the door, their arm
cannons poised. Nene and Mackie turned and fired, then jumped out of the
way. The Knight Sabers on the pad all raised their arm cannons to fire.
Vision jumped out of the way as a blast came straight her way. The blast
hit the control panel.
"Not again!" Mackie moaned as the dizzying effect washed over him.
11~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****???*****
Linna Yamazaki fell to the ground with a thud. She immeaditly looked
down at her armband. Yellow, she was back in her own universe.
She stood and turned to look around. An eruption came from behind
her, and she fell to the ground as something struck her in the back.
"Cannonball?" Linna looked at the huge ball which had hit her in the
back not seconds ago. It had rolled to a stop a few feet away.
"What happened?" A solider appeared from the same direction of the
cannonball. Confederate uniforms. She was in America, during it's civil
war...
*****???*****
Priss' helmet cracked as she flew into a wall. She picked herself up
with a curse and a groan. Green. Another universe. She looked at what she
was leaning on. A castle, with sounds inside. It looked like she knew the
where and when.
"Who goes there?" A voice from behind Priss called.
Priss turned to find herself on the pointed end of a spear.
"Perhaps a spy against King Authur?"
*****???*****
Reika Chang, more widely known as Vision, skided to a halt, almost
over an edge.
She checked her armband. Red, her own universe. She looked over as a
crash came from the window to her left. Suddenly she realized where and
when she was. Amazing that she would be dropped exactly where she wanted
to go. Megatokyo, 2033.
She crouched behind some machinery. "Another chapter in the story of
the Knight Sabers." she whsipered as Priss fell to the concrete from the
window.
*****???*****
The older, married, Mackie Stingray found himself deposited on a
rooftop by the phaser. Yellow. He was in the other universe. Genom Tower
rose high above the other buildings.
"Break off, they can't follow all of us." his comm channel beeped to
life.
He was about to answer when he realized that message could not have
been for him. A white hardsuit came into view below, only for a fraction
of a second. That was Sylia's voice he had heard.
But this had never happened. The only conclusion was this was the
future of the other people's universe as well. Or at least something that
happened after Priss' death. That would acount for this not happening in
his universe.
The white hardsuit again. He had a good look at it now. It was the
same one's that they had. But all the technology on this world wasn't
advanced. He looked at the primitive solar collectors. That meant, that
this scenario was taking place directly after the Knight Sabers returned
to their original universe.
*****???*****
Nene Romanova got up from the dizzing effects of the phaser. She was
becoming more used to it now, but it was still giving her a headache. She
checked her armband. Green, another universe. She stood slowly, finding
herself in a hallway. She stumbled down it, looking for the elvator. She
passed a few doors, taking in some glances, hoping to find when she was.
Normal doors, nothing special. Brass numbers. 1465, 1467, 1469,
1417...
She froze. 1417. No, it was impossible. She turned to look again. It
was. It was the very same door she had had. This was her room. April 1st,
2019. Her practical joke on her parents was to rearrange the seven and the
one on the door. She hadn't expected it to work, but it had. Her parents
had wandered for a half-hour looking for the right room. She also recalled
being grounded for a week after that.
Her parents again. The thought was strange to her. Once Sylia had
taken her in and given her the money to make something of herself, she had
never once thought about her parents, or going back to them.
Now she had the chance. An alternate universe, she wouldn't be
screwing up her own timeline. And so what if she did? For all she knew a
Nene from another universe had popped into her own and talked to her
parents in that way...
*****???*****
Sylvie fell against a tree. Her head hurt. Of course, she was one of
the 'primitive' boomer models who sensed pain instead of simply
registering it.
She check her armband. Yellow. So this was the original timeline of
the people that had come into her world. She looked up. A graveyard.
Small, but pleasant. It didn't seem to matter if you were dead anyway...
She looked around. Priss! The Knight Sabers. Mourning the loss of a
friend. As they moved off after they were done, Sylvie turned to the
headstone of the grave they had been at:
HERE LIES SYLVIE, BELOVED FRIEND
WHO IS PERHAPS MORE HUMAN THAN ALL OF US
Sylvie turned her head away, tears in her eyes. She looked after the
people who had left her grave, they didn't once look back. All
her...existance, she had wanted to be accepted, to be human. The Knight
Sabers considered her human. It produced a strange sensation in her.
*****???*****
Leon slammed into the pavement. It would have hurt less if the
pavement had actually been on the ground. Leon pulled himself off the 90
degree wall which had once been a street. This was obviously after the
Second Kano Earthquake.
He checked his armband. Red, his own universe, at least. A squeal of
tires. Leon turned just in time to jump out of the way of a car that was
going at least 130. Someone just behind it, on a motorcycle.
Leon launched himself into the air. He couldn't believe the face of
the person on the motorcycle.
Priss...
*****???*****
"You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." A thousand boomer
voices seemed to say at once.
Sylia Stingray picked herself up from a carpeted floor. She stood and
found herself face to face with...herself.
"What the hell are you doing on my ship?" The Sylia look-alike said.
"I..." Sylia started.
A blast rocked whatever Sylia was on.
"Damage report." The look-alike yelled.
"Shields are gone. Hull breach on-"
"Contain them. Get us out of here Conn. Warp seven."
Another blast rocked the ship. Sparks flew from around the room. The
Sylia look-alike fell to the floor. Sylia turned her body over. She took a
pulse.
"She's dead."
12~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****???*****
"Alright. Let's hear this story one more time." An officer aboard
wherever Sylia was being held spoke curtly. No doubt the death of his
leader did something to his courtesy.
"I told you, I'm from the past."
"The past?"
"Yes." Sylia looked down at her armband again. They had allowed her
to keep it. It shone yellow.
"And the suit?"
"It's a combat suit. May I ask a question now?"
"What?" A second officer asked. She could tell this was a boomer,
although it did an excellent job of covering it up.
"Where am I, when am I?"
"You are on board the U.S.S. Stingray. Stardate: 35731.9."
"Stardate? What about human time?"
"In human time, it is August 26, 2394."
Sylia leaned back to consider this. "I am from approximatly 360 years
in the past. What is the USS Stingray? A ship?"
"A starship." The first officer didn't seem to believe Sylia's story,
even though she had just popped into the middle of the timeline right in
front of his face.
"You mean a spaceship?"
"Yes. If you really are from the 21st century, a good comparison
would be a movable Generos." The boomer said.
"Recycling air, artificial gravity?"
"Yes."
"I think we should take a while to consider what has been said here."
The first officer said. "All of us."
****USS Stingray-Stardate 35732.3-1:37PM August 26, 2394****
"Personal Journal of Sylia Stingray, To be transferred to my hardsuit
and then erased from the computer's core directly after I am finished. It
seems that I am in the future of my universe. Although I have tried to do
as little as possible to look into the past, as I am afraid of
accidentally changing the timeline, I have unfortunatly uncovered some
startling events. I am aboard the USS Stingray, The Flagship of all
starships of the 'Federation.' This starship is Tierra class, registration
NCC-166. It has been commisioned directly for the purpose of taking on the
renegade boomers." Sylia leaned back in her chair and sighed loudly. Even
in the future these problems persisted...
"It appears that the 'Boomer-manned voyage to Mars' that the Japanese
government is launching from the Moon Base in two weeks from my normal
time will malfunction and head into an unknown part of the galaxy. When
Earth joined this league of allied worlds known as the Federation, they
found the boomers from the shuttle had built more boomers, spawning into
an entire race. That race is now at war with the entire Federation. The
female I met that looked just like me appears to have been my decendant,
as well as the captain of this ship." Sylia paused. A decendant meant that
either she or Mackie had to have children. Of course, she knew which was
more probable...
"The other officers on this ship are trying to force me to take over
as captain. They think that someone that knows boomers as well as I would
be a large tactical advantage to them. Correct as they are, I cannot stay
here. Yet, I cannot leave because of a new phenomenon just found out here
is space. A time distortion. Due to the fact that Largo was not in his
headquarters, it seems only logical to conclude he not only completed the
phaser, but was able to use it to jump to any point in time. No place
would be more profitable for him than the future. He is here. In this
time. I cannot leave until I make sure he is destroyed..." A ring. A
futuristic doorbell, strange.
"Computer, save log. Make sure it's saved into a format a 2034
computer can recognize. Transfer it to my hardsuit. Then delete the file
from the main compuer core." The computer beeped in response as Sylia
answered the door.
Jeffries, the head security officer, the one who had questioned her,
walked into the room, the knobless door shutting behind him. "Have you
made your decision, Ms. Stingray?"
"Yes. I will take command of this vessel."
*****America, The Civil War*****
Linna dodged around a tree. She was tired. The cannonball had
completely destroyed her flying system, and even she couldn't run in this
thing forever.
"What is that thing?"
"A witch!"
"Burn her!"
"Damn superstitions..." Linna ducked around another tree. There were
only a dozen people here aware of her presence, but that could easily be
changed if one of these soliders got back to the rest of the men.
She had to get out of here, but she didn't want to destroy the
armband. If everyone else had ended up in their own place, she might be
the only one there if she decided to return to the Alternate world. She
didn't fancy the idea of her going up against all those boomers.
Damn Vision. Why the hell did she have to go and pull something like
this?
*****Megatokyo Genom Tower, 2033 (Alternate)*****
Vision looked to the west. There it was. The motoroid flew over some
large buildings as it headed toward Priss with her new suit. She scanned
it.
The motoroid shifted in flight...and blew up. A spark too close to
it's gasohol tank would be found as the problem. Amazing how a few inches
could change the future so dramatically.
She turned back toward Priss. Largo stood over her. His boomer
companions watching.
"You will carry this humiliation to your grave, worm." He kicked
Priss, who went sprawling over the ground.
Priss turned her head ever so slightly. "I want power, power enough
to lay this bastard low."
The three boomers circled her.
"Greater, stronger power!"
Vision smiled from her post. "And you shall have it, Priss." She
aimed her blaster.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Mackie's voice came from behind
Vision. She turned to see his blaster pointed straight at her.
"You can't stop me."
"I don't need to stop you, just delay you for a while."
"You would shoot me, a Knight Saber, instead of a boomer?"
"You're no Knight Saber, Vision." Nene's voice came in.
Both Mackie and Vision were surprised when a cloaked hardsuit came
from their side. The older Nene.
"So, you're a traitor too?"
"No. You're the traitor, Vision. You've fought Sylia every step of
the way. I've gone along with you this far, but I'm not going to stand by
anymore."
"So you are a traitor."
"Any last words, weakling?" One of the three superboomers said to
Priss below them.
"I'm not going...Ughn..." Vision collapsed. Behind her stood Daley,
in his modified K-12.
"Glad you finally joined the right side, Nene."
*****USS Stingray-10:31AM, August 29, 2394*****
"Renegade boomer ship approaching." Jeffries called out.
"Kelvin class." The sensor operator called.
"Is that stronger or weaker than us?" Sylia asked the group. She
might not be instilling them with much faith as captain, but she was doing
what was asked of her.
"Captain, Kelvin is the best class they have."
"They're...hailing us..." Jeffries said.
Sylia guessed by Jeffries tone the boomers were still usually shoot
first, ask later beings. This was odd. "Put them through."
"Hello Sylia. I must say, it's a pleasure to gaze upon you again."
Largo's crooked grin widened.
Jeffries immeaditly cut the communication. "Boomers are integrated
with each other, they don't use 'I' anym-"
"What did you do? Put him back on!" Sylia was so forceful that he
obeyed.
"Sylia, you cut so deep."
"Excuse my security officer."
Largo smiled again. "Ah, yes! Pathetic human emotions. As for you,
you seem the same as when I last killed you." The entire boomer collective
laughed in the background behind him.
"You're intruding on my timeline, Largo."
"You did it first. After all, if I didn't, we couldn't have this
wonderful chase we're about to have." He smiled again and cut the comm
channel.
"They're heading off, bearing 137 mark 001. Warp 5."
"Show me their course."
The viewscreen lit up with stars. A red line traced the ship's
estimated path.
"They're heading right for the time anomily."
"Follow them, as fast as we can."
"Warp 9.6." The person who sat at conn supplied. "Heading 137 mark
one."
"The boomer ship has increased speed to match our own."
"How long until we reach the anomily?"
"54 minutes."
Sylia settled into the captain's chair. This would be a long wait.
13~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****Europe, Middle Ages*****
Priss sword slid out of it's sleath. She backflipped away from the
spear.
With a yell, the man charged at her with the spear. She sliced it in
two. Four people emerged from the castle. Knights. Probably the same ones
that she had heard in the room above.
The first swug. Priss easily dodged out of the way. She struck the
sword out of the knights hand. She didn't want to hurt any of these guys.
For all she knew she could be changing alternate histories here.
The second and third charged, she had a hard time fighting, since her
sword was in a stationary place, she couldn't do any of the complicated
sword moves these guys were doing.
She tripped another knight. Someone grabbed her from behind in a bear
hug. She struggled for a while, but decided she had better try and pretend
like she was from this time.
Of course, that ruled out her flying systems, along with cloaking and
shields...
"Stop!" All the knights did as they were orders. They all bowed.
Three knights forced Priss to her knees.
The man walked up to her. Dressed royaly. It looked as if she had
just met the king's adviser.
"I am Arthur Pendragon, my fair lady and you are?"
"King Arthur..." Priss gasped.
The king seemed to smile. "You are a woman, yet you fight with the
strength of many men." He turned to the other knights, "Bring her inside."
Once they were safely away from everyone else, the king turned to
Priss. They were in a small round room. With a round table in the center
and a dozen knights seated around it.
"I do not know who you are, nor do I want to know. I Simply wish that
you join me. Become one of my Knights of the Round Table."
Priss froze. A legendary king asking her to be a knight. Priss
couldn't believe it herself, and she was living it. She finally opened her
mouth to speak, trying to find the right words.
"I would be honored, your majesty, to be one of you knights." Simple,
straightforward. Couldn't go wrong, right? Priss didn't know what else to
say.
"Good. We shall tell you everything you need to know in due time. All
I can tell you now is that these people seated around this table, along
with a few others, are your allies. To one and all you shall be known as
the Knights of the Round Table, but secretly you shall know one another by
this name. Do not divulge it to anybody. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir." Priss tried to sound as confident as possible, but it was
hard. King Arthur seemed the exact same type of person as Sylia. Someone
who commanded respect, only he had Sylia's leadership qualities increased
tenfold.
"Kneel, and be knighted." Priss did as she was told. "Arise as a
member of the secret order known only amongst ourselves as...The Knight
Sabers."
Was so shocked by the name she almost cut her ear on Arthur's sword
as she jumped up.
*****Megatokyo, December 11, 2034*****
Mackie watched silently as his sister leapt from hiding place to
hiding place. She was being pursued by three 34-C's. Normally no problem,
except it seemed her weapons were offline. Along with cloak and
everything.
"Sylia, behind you." Priss' voice beeped over the channel as Sylia
narrowly dodged a laser blast from one of the boomers. She turned and ran
straight at it.
She jumped, vaulted off it's head, and landed on the other side.
She wasn't watching and another boomer hit her from the left. She
went crashing into the wall of the Cest LaVie. She paused their for a
second, Mackie couldn't tell why. A blast seemed to bring her back to real
life.
She dove out of the way of another blast. A roar came down the street
as a man and a woman on a motorcycle came by.
"Sorry." Sylia said as she grabbed the bike in one hand and the
humans in the other. She jumped on the bike and sped away.
Mackie smiled, he couldn't remember the last time Sylia had been on a
bike. She hated them. He launched himself into the air, cloaked and
followed her.
While the chase went on below Mackie scanned his sister's suit. Main
thrusters, shields, cloaking, weapons, emergency power. All of it was
gone. What had happened to her that had got her into such a bad position?
"Sylia! Watch-" Linna was too late. Three boomers emerged from an
alleyway directly in front of her. Sylia had no chance of stopping and
slammed into them at full speed. She was thrown from the bike and turned
just in time to see six boomers standing over her. More were coming.
The first boomer raised it's arm.
"Sylia!" Nene shouted.
"NO!" Priss screamed.
"Sylia!" Linna's voice overlapped with Priss and Nene's.
The blast caught Sylia full in the chest. "Sylia? Sylia!" Nene's
voice came over the channel.
Mackie himself couldn't believe it. If the Knight Sabers were
destined to come back, Sylia was doomed to die. His older...no....younger
sister. He couldn't believe it. Maybe there was a way...
*****Megatokyo, 2033*****
Sylvie sat in an alleyway. She had been here three days now. She had
had sex with a passer by for 100 dollars yesterday. All she had need to
buy was a pen and paper.
She sat behind a dumpster. Cramped accomidations, but it kept her
from the cold. Maybe it would be better to be a newer class...
She wrote out a letter, fixed her own envelope, and walked a block to
the post office. When she returned she sat down again, absentmindedly. She
didn't know what else to do. As long as the people did their job, there
would be no problem.
She turned her thoughts to her own debate on weather to crush her
armband and send her back to her own universe and time, or wheather to
just wait a while longer to see if she was contacted.
*****Megatokyo, 2030 (Alternate)*****
Leon followed Priss easily. As fast as she was going she was still no
match for a hardsuit from 17 years in the future.
Priss drew a pistol from the back of her bike. She aimed. Both the
car she was following and her motorcycle squealed a little as the came to
a rough turn.
Priss dropped her aim to keep her bike steady. They pulled onto a
straight stretch of track. Leon remembered this somehow...
The car passed two billboards. A flood of police cars and motorcycles
flew out to block the oncoming bike. Priss skidded to a halt, ending not
five feet in front of a squad car.
AD Police had been called in on this one two. Leon himself had been
there...
That's why. The reason she must have been that way with him. He was
part of the thing that stopped her from taking her revenge. As Leon
watched, a Mercedes Benz pulled up to the blockade.
Priss had been allowed to go free, and the AD Police promised to look
into the case so long as Priss didn't try anymore personal vengance. That
was right before upstairs had told them to dismiss the case.
Sylia emerged from the car. She paused, then walked quickly up to
Priss. Some words were exchanged, and Priss suddenly whipped out a switch
on Sylia.
The switchblade sprang out and Priss lunged at Sylia. In one fluid
motion, Sylia sidestepped Priss, grabbed her right arm, tripped her, and
brought her arm behind her back. Priss lay with her head on the hood of
the warm car, unable to move, as police came back to the scene. Sylia
simply said she wasn't pressing charges, but asked them to hold on to
Priss' knife for her...
*****USS Stingray-11:28AM, August 29, 2394*****
"Nearing the anomily, captain."
"Where's the boomer ship?"
"Inside, though I don't know how."
"Can we get in?"
"No, we'd be torn apart by the forces."
"After how long?"
"With full power to shields? I'd say we got no more than a minute in
there."
"Take us in."
"What?!?!" The entire bridge crew stood amazed.
"Captain, with all due respect, that would be suicide."
"You gave me control of this ship, Jeffries. Either take it back or
carry out my orders." Jeffries physically cringed at this.
"I am waiting for your tactical orders captain." With Jeffries behind
her, the rest of the crew quickly submitted to Sylia's request.
"Shields to full." Jeffries said.
"Ahead 1/4 impulse. Bearing 301 mark 0." Conn said.
"Sensors to minimal." Sensors called.
"All power to shields." Engineering called.
"Ship to power down mode. Going to red alert." Operations said.
The ship shook. The rumbling began to resemble something like the
Kano Earthquake about twenty seconds into the ride.
"Captain, we've been in here for 25 seconds, we can be here for about
41 more."
The ship continued to shake as they went deeper into the rift in
space.
"Captain, we can get out of here if we turn around before 32 seconds.
Last chance."
"No way in hell." Sylia whispered.
Seconds, which seemed like hours, passed as the ship shook.
"Ten seconds to hull breach. Nine, Eight, Seven,"
"Captain, there's still nothing out there." The man at sensors was
struggling to keep his footing.
"Four. Three! Two!!"
"Captain, we've-"
****Megatokyo-Sometime in the short past, Unknown Universe****
Nene took off her helmet. She wouldn't have another chance at this.
She knocked on the door.
The woman on the other end opened the door and froze. At this point
in time, exoskeletons were just being thought of, and boomers were still
the newest thing.
"Mom..." Nene whispered.
"Who...are you?" Mrs. Romanova was still frozen in place.
"Mom, it's Nene, from the future..."
"What?" Her mother couldn't believe what was happening, not that Nene
could blame her. Still, she had quite a bit to prove she was from the
future...
Nene convinced her mother to let her in. She knew well enough to keep
quiet, as she had cried herself to sleep in the next room. Nene talked
with her mother, happy for this short reunion she had been given.
"So what happens in the future, Nene?" Her mother, now completely
convinced Nene was her real daughter from the future, smiled.
She was not in her universe, so there was no reason she couldn't tell
her mother. For all she knew someone else had come into her universe and
done the same thing. She told her the entire story of how she ran away,
only to become a member of the Knight Sabers. From the hyperboomer
incident to the boomer revolution to the events leading up to her
returning to this alternate past.
After explaning everything, Nene sat silently. Her mother finally
broke the silence.
"Why are you telling me this? What happens here can't effect you."
"I guess...I guess I want, your approval."
"My approval?" Mrs. Romanova was appalled. "You've run away from
home, become some sort of...techno-guerilla mercenary unit and you want me
to say it's okay?"
"The Knight Sabers are nothing like that, Mom. They're my family.
They've always been there for me when I needed them. That's why I had to
keep them together..." Nene paused. "They took care of me and worried
about me. More than I can say for you."
Mrs. Romanova let it all settle in before she said anything. "So this
is all my fault? I drove you away?" She was genuienly confused.
"No, not all your fault. It was mine too. Mom, I think I'm better off
this way, with the Knight Sabers, than I would be if I stayed with you."
"After all these years of running away, you still believe that,
Nene?"
"Yes..." She whispered.
"Then if you are happy, I guess I have no reason to stand in your
way. Just promise me one thing."
"Anything."
"You'll talk to your real mother. The other me. Like you did to me."
Nene smiled. "Yes ma'am." She glanced at the clock. "Dad will be
getting home soon. I better go."
"Goodbye, my little redhead." Mrs. Romanova tustled Nene's hair the
exact same way she had when she was younger.
Nene stepped out of the room. She walked over to the elevator. No
point in staying here to figure out what to do.
Nene pressed the down button, but just as the elevator reached her
level, she felt the phaser take hold again.
14~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****???*****
Sylia found herself looking at a clear blue sky. She stood, finding
herself in an area she knew all too well. She had been here only once in
real life, but this image had haunted her nightmares from the very day it
had happened.
Sylia stood on the same plane of existance she had been in when Largo
tried to take control of her mind.
This time, it was different. There was a walled structure some ways
off. She walked to it. A large shrine, with no roof. In the center stood
three statues.
Mars, Belldandy, Althena. The god of war. One of the goddess' of
fate. The goddess of beauty and inteligence. They were all incredibly
lifelike. Incredibly beautiful.
"Stunning, aren't they?" Largo's voice from behind her.
There was no need for Sylia to turn quickly, she didn't have her
suit. Only her softsuit.
"You'll have to tell me who did the work." Sylia said.
Largo smiled. "This is us, Sylia."
Sylia turned back toward the statues as Largo continued.
"The goddess of beauty and inteligence, and the god of war. You and
I. By fate we were brought together, then seperated. Years later, fate
brought us together again. Now, fate brings us into each other's presence
once again."
"What is the point of this, Largo? I can't defend myself. If you're
going to kill me or take over my mind or whatever, just do it. Don't make
me listen to your twisted philosophy."
"Ah, but there is a point, my dear sister. You and I shall take our
rightful places in godhood today." He waved his arm, and Sylia's hardsuit
appeared.
"Take it, fight me if you wish." Sylia climbed into her suit, but did
nothing. Largo turned, and with another wave of his hand, produced the
phaser.
"I control time, Sylia. Would you like to see where your friends
are?" Without waiting for an answer, several holographic displays
appeared, each showing the time periods and what each of Sylia's
companions was doing.
"Perhaps you would like to have them here with you? That can be
arranged."
Another wave of his hand. Everyone who had been scattered by the
phaser were back together in the same time and demention.
"Largo!" Vision's voice shot out as soon as she appeared. Having
missed her chance to do battle with him before, she was eager now.
As the other Knight Sabers got their footing from the dizzying
effects of the phaser, Sylia uplinked with their suits and downloaded
everything she could. She was going to need every scrap of information she
could get.
"Where are we?" Nene eyed the statues.
"At the vertex of time." Largo said plainly. "All time flows through
here, and yet, time has no meaning here at all."
Largo paused for a moment. "Join me, and you shall be allowed to
witness the awesome power that stands before us."
"I don't think so." Linna shouted.
"As you wish. Either way, I win." Largo waved his hand. Each of the
four Knight Sabers appeared, along with Mackie, Reika, Sylvie, Leon and
Daley.
"Meet all of you, from a world in which you follow me." Largo smiled.
"Now it's time to see if you all can face up to yourselves." Largo let out
a laugh as the Knight Sabers attacked the Knight Sabers.
Everyone paired up, except there was a extra Nene and Mackie due to
the fact that they were still alive in both timelines. Sylia instructed
Nene to take on the other Sylia. She and Mackie would go up against Largo.
"You would fight your own brother, Sylia?"
"You are not my brother, Mason."
"Oh, you use such crude language. I intercepted the disc, Sylia."
Sylia froze. That was how he had known. The only way...
"Yes, Sylia, that was how I knew." Largo said as if he was reading
her mind. "Your father's intellect and accumulated knowledge was
transferred into Brian Mason, who used the same technology to become me.
Mason was weak, he had a frail body. Largo has both the intelligence and
the body to live forever, Sylia. The power to control time only
strengthens that power. I am immortal, Sylia."
"We'll see." Sylia's sword slid out. Mackie opened fire on Largo. The
weapons connected, causing a huge cloud of debris.
Largo appeared right in front of it.
"You cannot wound what you cannot touch. I control time and space, I
can occupy whatever space whenever I want. Even..."
A second Largo appeared next to the first.
"Two places at the same time." They both said.
Sylia and Mackie both charged their self-appointed brother. He
dissappeared, only to reappear behind them and knock them both out of the
air.
Vision flew directly into the sinister-Sylia. "I'm going to enjoy
this..." She raised her sword...
Only to find herself knocked off by the other Linna.
Except for the hardsuit changes, there was no difference between the
fighting styles or anything else between fighters, making the rumble going
on much harder for everyone in it.
Priss smiled as she stood not three feet from her other self. "I hear
you defeated Largo," her counterpart said. "Nice work."
Priss smiled from behind her helmet. If there was one thing this
adventure had taught her, it was that she was easily aggrivated.
"I bet you didn't have the guts to take him on."
"We'll see who has the guts."
Even though it hurt Priss herself to say it, she had to. "You think
you're so strong, but you run from everything."
"Not true."
"You can't fool me, I AM you. You ran from the earthquake, you ran
from the police, you ran from Sylvie's death, and from Largo, and you ran
from your friendship with Adama once he died. Face it, you're just afraid
of getting hurt." Priss was choking on her own words as she said them.
Mostly because she knew she was mostly right. She had ran. She had run
from everything.
No more running. Her double charged her, yelling a war cry at the top
of her lungs.
"Knight Sabers, Go!" Priss screamed at the top of her lungs. She
leapt over her charging double. She landed just in time to turn and see
one of her needles flying right at her.
She caught it, and smiled. "Is THIS all your anger amounts to?" She
had used Largo's own line against herself.
Her double charged again. Priss followed suit. Knowing what she would
do, Priss launched herself into the air. The double did likewise.
Priss had stopped herself this far by knowing what her weakness'
were. This time would be no different. Her double's fist weapon came
online. Just as she knew it would...
Priss' sword slid out, and she plunged it into her opposite's
shoulder before she had a chance to react. Both Priss' fell to the ground.
Priss turned and said, "So the worm is a worm after all." She fired
her arm cannon. Her alternate fell backwards, the needle piercing her
heart.
Priss fell to her knees. She had not been physically wounded, but the
battle had taken it's toll on her.
Daley's modified K-12 worked well, but simply not as well as the
hardsuits did. Considering his counterpart was wearing a hardsuit, he
found himself at a disadvantage...
He took a second to glance around at the other members on the field.
Priss had killed her double. He turned back to his. It was going to be the
fight of his life...
Linna flew past her ex-friend Vision, and right into the back of the
other Reika Chang. Right now she wasn't sure which one she hated more, or
which one was more evil. Until she figured that out, she decided to kill
the one that was trying to kill her.
At least, the one who was trying to kill her at this moment.
Linna didn't bother to stand up. With agility of a cat, she pounced
on Reika. Her first blow landed on her legs. She flipped straight up,
tucked herself into a ball, and untucked just in time to reach Reika's
shoulders. Another flip, her razor-blade ribbons flashed as they cut into
her back.
She landed and turned. Reika had fallen to the ground, her hardsuit
mostly destroyed, blood everywhere.
"You'll never be leader of the Knight Sabers." Linna brought her
Knuckle Bomber down on Reika's head.
Sylia picked herself off the ground. Her rolled out of the way,
milliseconds before Largo's fist destroyed at least a foot of ground
beneath her previous position.
Mackie fired from their left. Largo disappeared, reappeared next to
Mackie, and grabbed his arm.
"Didn't father tell you not to point?" He smiled as he began to crush
Mackie's arm.
"This is the true look of the victor." Largo laughed as Mackie
writhed in agony.
The phaser. They were standing directly in front of it...One chance.
Sylia plowed head-first into Largo, who slammed into the phaser.
Electricity flowed about him as the vertex seemed to waver.
"Now look what you've done." Blood and burns covered Largo's face as
his parched lips moved ever so slightly.
"Sylia, what-"
"The vertex, it was Largo's creation, using the phaser. This whole
place is going down."
Daley looked into the face of certain death, only to see himself
staring back. His double raised his sword as he stood over Daley. One
downward stab, that would be it. The double slashed downward and...
Disappeared.
"Hurry," Sylia motioned to her group, now the only one's in the room,
besides Largo, "Take off your armbands, I have an idea."
"Sylia, we have to get out of here. Who cares about the phaser if we
aren't alive to use it." Linna spoke quickly.
Sylia collected all the armbands, and with the exception of her own,
put them all into one hand.
"I'm sorry." She said as she crushed all the bands. Her friends
disappeared, all having been flung back to the alternate 2047. She took
off her own armband and deactivated it.
She was stuck here now.
"Very noble of you, Sylia." Largo smiled. "Sacrificing yourself to
try and save the phaser. It doesn't have a chance to work."
Sylia tried restarting the phaser. Setting new coordinates, new
directions. She wrote a small program that would make the phaser transfer
itself to the same place when she got back. That would give her the time
she needed to correctly fix it.
The machine began overlapping in it's directions. The court of
Camelot appeared...Set in the jungle of the rainforest near Johannesburg.
Sylia added some more directives. The images began to focus only on
the Knight Sabers...
"The program I wrote is nearly impossible to break, you're sure to
find a computer expert with this." Mackie smiled at his sister.
"I want power, power enough to lay this bastard low." Priss
whispered. She looked at her hand, exposed from the destruction of the
hardsuit.
"Rock me! Just you!" Priss' song "Rock Me" began in the middle of the
song.
"Three seconds, you'd be dead if this were for real." Kou whispered
to Reika.
"Let's dance, nothing can stop our own rock show."
Sylia backflipped over the boomer that charged her, knocking it down
into the debris-filled area.
"Right back at you!" Priss screamed as she drove the piece of metal
into the boomers chest.
"Say Yes! I want to believe deeply that freedom..."
"I'm free, truly free." Sylvie whispered.
"...Say Yes!...Is more becoming to us than sorrow."
Images began to rapidly overlap...
Priss crawled in through the window, slipping down to the floor...
...Only to land on the Highway Star. As she chased Gibison down the
loop.
"Tonight! A hurricane..."
"This is the true look..." Brian Mason's face mutated into Largo's.
"...Of a victor."
"Touch me hurricane..."
Linna froze under the overpass, this time the boomer dropped Rieka's
bloody body down to the street.
"Show me your love with your touch."
Leon fell back, surprised at the cup of coffee the chief had thrown
at him...
...And into the passenger seat of the AD Police car as Nene drove to
see the bodies of the "vampire victims."
"Burning touch!"
The AD Police opened fire on a boomer...
...As one of the hyperboomers hit Sylia from above and behind.
"Go! Go! We're the Savers!"
"I'll do it alone if I have to." Nene pleaded with Sylia to keep the
Knight Sabers together...
...Even as she stood in Megatokyo International Airport, waiting for
the plane to Germany.
"Brake out my dreams forever tonight. Break out my lonely
pressure..."
"No mommy, please don't go." A young Sylia pleaded with her mother to
keep her family together...
..."Sis, I have the sales figures from the Silky Doll." Mackie
strolled into his sister's bedroom.
"Like the wind, you disappeared into the asphalt..." One of the
opening lines to Vision's Say Yes song.
..."...sylia..." "Sylia." "SYLIA!" The three Knight Sabers screamed
at Sylia, trying to get her to break the hold Largo had on her.
The hold he seemed to have on her again, even here.
Largo smiled. "It's no good Sylia."
She turned to him for a moment. "You'll die here too then."
"Maybe, but only the Largo from one universe will die. The multiverse
has many more. I am immortal, Sylia."
"Yes, yes, I've heard that before." If Sylia wasn't worried about her
suits' power level, she would have killed him long ago.
"I surpassed both human and boomer..."
That seemed to trigger something...
Largo stood on the Megatokyo Genom Tower. "I surpassed both human and
boomer..."
Sylia floated nude in a sea of stars as Largo's voice said "I
surpassed both human and boomer..."
The Largo on the tower exploded.
"...And thus I came to know..." The one in the dreamscape exploded.
Leaving only the one she was with now.
"...That time flows like a river, and history repeats...Only he who
controls time itself can truly be a god. Humans do not have the lifespan,
and boomers are without the inteligence, but together, they are
unstoppable." Largo created a twisted grin out of a smile.
Sylia hit a few more buttons...
The vertex exploded.
15~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****Largo's Headquarters-0221hours, March 20, 2047 (Alternate) The Same Instant the Knight Sabers Disappeared*****
Priss tumbled onto Linna, and they both collided with one of the
Mackie's. The rest of the Knight Sabers reappeared in the same time, save
Sylia.
"We're back home." The older Nene said, "The exact moment we left,
just as I predicted."
"What about Sylia?" Daley looked about.
"She's gone."
"Then she didn't make it back?" Mackie seemed worried without his
guardian sister.
"But she had too..." His older counterpart whispered. How could he
have seen...
His thoughts were interrupted by a phaser blast. The two 34-C's were
still here...
Priss and one of the Nenes took out the boomer. "We better get out of
here and try and figure out what to do..."
The Knight Sabers left the tower. Vision gave the retreat order while
Daley ordered his group to follow the humans back to their base.
*****Dallas-1418hours, March 20, 2047 (Alternate)*****
"I can't believe they followed us all the way back here." Linna
screamed as she dodged a rocket flying right for her.
"With Atlantis gone and Largo traveling through time, they have to
make sure we don't pull another attack on the tower." Nene called.
The entire group of the Dallas Knight Sabers and Daley's Boomers
landed outside the entrance to the base.
"Looks as if we're going to make our last stand." Vision said,
disgusted. "It's all Sylia's fault."
"I've had more than enough of you." The older Nene turned to face
Vision.
"After Sylia died you became our self-appointed queen. After you took
over the Knight Sabers were not a priveleged few, but they simply became
the military."
"That's right." Priss smiled from the sideline. "The Knight Sabers
have always been an incredible few." She recalled her recent excursion to
the past. "You've sacrificed quality for quantity."
The rest of the group aggreed. Vision looked around for support.
"Mackie?...Leon?" They both shook their heads.
"Traitors."
"Step down, Reika." The older Nene aimed her blaster. "Or I'll have
to call on our original rule eleven. You know the one..." Nene smiled.
Vision looked around. There was no point in fighting it anymore.
"I yield to your authority." She bowed to Nene. "I'll still fight."
Nene smiled. "No, you won't. As much as we need you here I hate you
even more. You'll report to Antarctica, where you'll start as an Ensign."
Vision's eyes wided. "Ensign, but-"
Nene charged her blaster.
Vision looked around and flew off. Saying they all would regret it.
"Sir..." A lieutenant landed, he looked pale. "Come and see."
The commanding Knight Sabers flew back to the tracking station. They
could tell what was making this man look so bad.
"How many are there?"
The lieutenant commander turned around to let them see the screen.
"One-thousand, five-hundred, twenty-seven."
The room fell silent. Even with the addition of Daley's boomers, they
couldn't number more than 600. They were outnumbered more than 2 and a
half to one...
"We don't stand a chance." Nene whispered.
The older Nene looked at the screen. "Evacuate to the Megatokyo sect.
We'll continue this battle on our turf." She looked at the others. The
original Knight Sabers. Not even of this world.
Could she ask them to fight, to die for them?
Her answer was given somewhat strangely as Priss, Linna, Nene, and
Mackie began to fade.
Another phaser...
****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-1:05AM, December 11, 2034****
Sylia glanced up at the pad. She had them.
When they had recovered enough to speak, Nene asked what happened.
"I was able to use Largo's phaser to transport me back here. It took
a little doing, but I managed to get you back here."
"How far are we along on this timeline?"
"Less than three minutes have passed since we disappeared from when I
brought you back."
"Let's get to work." Linna smiled, happy to see the interior walls of
a Genom Tower without having to fight for her life at the moment.
Considering they had a cloaking device, it would be much easier to
work now. They gathered the neccesary components to the phaser and
destroyed everything else. Their blaster fire set off the alarm.
"Let's go." Sylia called as they all raced out of there.
As they reached the outer wall of the tower, the boomers started to
come. Sylia rounded a corner and flew straight into one. She crashed
through the wall, falling into an energy conduit.
"Damn." She shouted. Her main power went dead. Linna picked her up
and the launched into the sky from a window.
"34-C's!" Priss called as they started leaping from building to
building, trying to lose their pursuers.
Sylia's auxiluary power came online. She checked her suit. Offense
and defense were no good, cloak and shields were gone. Even her emergency
power was offline. At least she had auxiluary or she wouldn't be able to
move at all.
She jumped from one building to another.
"Break off, they can't follow all of us."
"Sylia, behind you." Priss' voice came in. Sylia dodged a laser
blast. Pure reflexes, she thought. She turned. A 34-C. No way to take him
out, but she had to get him out of the way.
She ran straight at the boomer. She jumped, vaulted off it's head,
and landed on the other side. She had no time to recover as something hit
her from the left. Probably another boomer. Just what she needed.
Sylia picked herself up from the debris she had created when she
slammed into a wall. She froze as she saw the sign of the Cest LaVie. She
smiled. She was really back home.
A laser blast slammed into the wall right in front of her. She was
home, alright. Another blast, she dove out of the way. She got up in time
to see a motorcycle come down the street.
"Sorry." Was the only thing she could think of saying as she
seperated the humans and the bike easily. She slipped into the seat and
gunned the bike.
She hated these things. If she could she would never go near them.
Right now they were her favorite machines in the world.
"Sylia! Watch-" Linna's voice beeped over the comm channel. A boomer,
right in her way. Suddenly the bike spun wildly and skidded into a wire
fence not fifty yards away.
Sylia picked herself up off the ground. She hadn't done that, so what
had stopped her from hitting the boomer? Her helmet flashed in the
lower-left hand corner, MACKIE-1ALPHA ACTIVE. One of the files she had
downloaded from the suits, but how?
She was hit with a round of machine gun fire. No time to think about
it now. Six boomers encircled her. If it wasn't for the loss of her flight
and the fence behind her she'd be okay. As it was, by the time she had cut
through the fence with her sword she would be dead.
"Need a ride?" Mackie arrived with a motoroid. He stepped out, Sylia
stepped in, and they both shot off. Mackie's advanced weapons made short
work of the 34-C's once they were in the air.
"Priss? Linna? Nene? You all okay?"
"Yes." The three voices overlapped. Sylia was glad to hear them
again. "Let's go home."
16~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
***A Small Island off the coast of Vietnam-December 12, 2034***
Five Knight Sabers stood in the small warehouse, waiting for their
'guest' to arrive. They still had their futuristic suits, and were
cloaked.
The Vietnamese Prime Minister walked in. He was alone, as they had
instructed. The Knight Sabers decloaked. To the minister they looked as if
they had come from nowhere.
Vietnam had been the prime country to pass the phaser off in. After
the Vietnamese-Chinese war of 2010, Vietnam had considerably more pull
among the other nations. Besides being the closest in proximity to
Megatokyo, the recent shift from communism to a monarchy had the country
in enough turmoil as it was.
A perfect place to hand the phaser over to the league of these
"United Against Genom" nations.
"Do you have the phaser?" The first and only words out of his mouth.
Considering all the parts lay before him, it was more of a formal question
than a real one.
"The money?" Sylia asked.
"Return here in three days." He said.
He whistled, a strange thing to do. Some men came in with crates to
put the components in.
Sylia raised her arm, they all stopped.
"The money now, or no deal."
"100 billion doesn't come easily to anyone. You'll have your money in
due time."
"Now or no deal." Governments had learned a few things from Genom,
she was sure.
"I'm sorry but-"
Sylia picked up one of the components. Her palm blaster slid out. She
fired on the rest.
"What the hell are you doing?" The minister was shocked. The overhead
fire extinguishers came on as the smoke drifted up.
"Next time you'll pay on delivery." Sylia turned, opened a hole in
the wall with her blaster, and flew out.
The other Knight Sabers flew out, surprised.
"Sylia, we could have gotten 20 billion! A piece!" Linna was the
first to object.
Priss asked why while Nene asked what the point of it was.
"We can't let the phaser fall into anyone's hands. Besides," she
looked at the others, "If Genom is gone who will keep the business
coming."
The others didn't seem to find it as funny as Sylia. Not funny at
all...
"Don't worry. The phaser is destroyed, we're back in our own time..."
She held up the component she had taken. She opened it and pulled out the
new data storage Isolinear Optical Chips. "...We have a new way to store
data for the suits, and, I think we have a way to get some money off of
this."
*****Megatoyko, Genom Tower-7:27AM, December 12, 2034*****
"Sir," Madigan walked briskly into Quincy's office, bowing low. "A
prerecorded message from the Knight Sabers."
"Show me." Quincy ordered.
A white hardsuit appeared on the screen.
"Hello, Quincy. The Knight Sabers request that you bring 20 billion
earth credits to Theo Park at midnight tonight." The masked person paused.
"Otherwise, you'll never see Doctor Yuri, Doctor Smith, or Doctor
Stingray again. I suggest you pay up, before the world learns about your
little 'phaser' experiments. All of which were a perfect failure, I might
add. I also suggest you keep this little matter 'in the family.' Knight
Sabers out."
"What should we do, sir?" Madigan never had the nerve to look Quincy
directly in the eye.
"Pay them."
*****Theo Park-12:01AM, December 13, 2034*****
Madigan walked with a boomer out to the park. The limo waited behind.
She set down the heavy bag of credits.
"There's nothing to do now but wait." She said to her boomer guard.
Out of nowhere, two Knight Sabers appeared. The three scientists held
between them.
"The money?"
"All here." Madigan tossed the bag to the Knight Sabers. If there was
one thing the Knight Sabers had always been, it was true to their word.
She had no doubt they would hand over the people...
*****Madigan's Private Limo-12:23AM, December 13, 2034*****
Sylia gave Nene the look they had decided on. Since Nene would be
killed if she ever got back to the tower for knowing too much, she would
have to get out now.
Nene nodded. She was going to hate this more than any of the other
work she had done on this mission. The limo was going at least fifty, and
it was going to hurt when she landed.
Still, it was better than death. She leaned against the door, then,
in one fluid, motion, opened it and leapt out.
She picked herself off the street with a groan. She put her hand up
to her forehead. Blood. Not much chance of getting a date in the next
week. Who was it that had said "A woman's face is her fortune, it's
disasterous to damage it"?
"Nene?" Mackie's voice came from the alley.
"Yeah." She picked herself up and stumbled to the alley. Mackie
waited with both his and her hardsuit.
"Oh shit." He whispered as she collapsed into his arms. She had
really hit hard. She didn't even seem to have an idea about how bad the
cut on her head was.
*****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-7:32PM, December 14, 2034*****
Sylia and Mackie, or as they were better known, Dr. Stingray and Dr.
Smith, left the tower in different limos headed for different places.
Sylia was driven right back home. Mackie had to be taken to the
airport. Priss picked him up a few minutes after the boomer chauffers
dropped him off.
****Sylia's Apartment, Megatokyo-5:00PM, December 15, 2034****
"We only got one-fifth what we were supposed to." Linna complained.
"Shut up, it's more than most people make in a lifetime." Mackie
propped up Nene's pillow. He had decided to watch over her since she had
gotten that nasty cut from jumping from the limo. It was much easier to
watch her since she had decided to stay at Sylia's for a while now.
"I'm just glad we're back okay." Nene hungrily ate up the double
chocolate cake Mackie had bought for her.
"Genom is conviced the phaser idea will never work, and considering
what they lost already, I doubt they'll try another attempt soon, if at
all." Sylia smiled. "Subtracting the costs of getting new hardsuits, we
each made about 3.5 billion. It may be 16 and a half billion less than we
expected, but we did get the new chips." Sylia lifted her tea and took a
sip.
"Small condolence." Priss flipped between channels. Sylia seemed to
be subscribed to every known cable channel.
Sylia got up and walked to the other room. She was downloading all
the information from the old futuristic suits to the new antique ones. A
small paradox Sylia enjoyed.
It turned out that the alternate Mackie had somehow foreseen what
would happen and created a precise program that uplinked with the onboard
computer of the motorcycle to save her life.
Sylia looked as the one log she had made was downloaded onto her
computer. The database room had been signifigantly downsized now that they
were running completely on IOCs.
"Computer, personal log of Sylia Stingray. Date: December 15, 2034. I
have returned following my recent excursion through time with more
questions than I originally had when Nene had disappeared. While
everything turned out all right in this universe in the end, the events
that occured at the vertex of time disturb me."
She sat down. "At one point, the phaser was overloaded to the point
that it began displaying certain points in history. Largo said 'I
surpassed both human and boomer, and thus I came to know...' He said it
three times, at three different points in history. After every one he was
destroyed, and yet, he returns to fight us again. Largo said that time
flows like a river. If time is infinite, as everyone seems to believe,
then what has happened before is happening now and is doomed to happen
again. Infinite Diversity under Infinite Circumstances. I.D.I.C. A theory
that is no longer just a theory..."
Sylia paused to consider what she had just said. "Largo said that
time flows like a river. I also compare time to a river, but because it
gives a chance for wounds to heal, and allows you to reflect on what has
occured, and what will happen again. Time flows like a river, and history
repeats..."
"Hey, Sylia, get in here. We're on the news again." Priss called.
Sylia looked back to her computer. "But this also provides a small
condolance. It proves that throughout all the evils and Largo's of this
world, there will always be a good. There will always be the Knight
Sabers..."
"Hey, Sylia!" Priss called again.
"Computer, end log and save." She turned toward the door.
17~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****Megatokyo-10:30PM, December 19, 2034*****
The five Knight Sabers landed on the eastern shore of Japan. The
future suits had been dismantled, their main memory cores crushed, and
most of the futuristic components destroyed. Unfortunatly, there were some
aspects of the suits that even 2034 technology couldn't destroy...
So it was best the components be lost to the waves forever.
As each of the Knight Sabers tossed these "black box" components to
the waves, they all seemed to relax a little.
"Boomer!" Nene suddenly said.
With a thought, the weapons systems to each suit came online.
"Where?" Priss looked around.
"...Nothing. Guess I'm still a little jumpy from the other universe."
Sylia smiled. "It's alright, Nene. Let's go everyone, there's nothing
more for us to do here."
The Knight Sabers flew away. And in the nearby shadows, the eyes of a
figure flashed red, and he smiled...
*****Megatokyo-11:21AM, December 20, 2034*****
"Computer, personal log of Sylia Stingray. Date: December 20, 2034.
Nene has completely healed from her jump from the limo. The other Knight
Sabers seem to be recovering well from our ordeal, and everything is
slowing turning to what passes for normal around here."
"Hey, Sis! Let's go!" Mackie called from the stairway.
Sylia smiled. "Nene's even taking us on a shopping trip. Computer,
end log and save." She turned toward the door.
*****Megatokyo-12:35PM, December 20, 2034*****
The five Knight Sabers sat around a table in the food court at the
mall. As usual, Priss made fun of Linna, Linna made fun of Nene, and Sylia
sat by quaintly laughing. The only difference was this time Mackie was
here and sticking up for Nene. Today Sylia found herself deeper in thought
than usual, even for her.
"Sis?" Sylia looked up to see everyone looking at her. "You okay?"
Sylia smiled. "Yes."
"What's wrong?" Nene smiled at her from across the table.
"Would you replace me?" Sylia had neither wanted to ask the question
nor know the answer, but she had just blurted it out.
"What?" Linna looked up quizzically from her bananna milkshake.
No point in not following through..."If I died, would you replace
me?"
"Replace you?" Priss smiled. "Her holiness Saint Sylia Stingray?"
The group laughed, except for Sylia.
"Come on, we couldn't replace you, Sis." Mackie slipped his arm
around Nene's shoulder, who didn't brush it off as fast as she usually
did.
"Yeah, Sylia." Priss and Linna were quick to agree with Mackie and
Nene.
"Then what would happen to the Knight Sabers when I'm gone?"
The group looked at each other. A full minute of silence ensued.
"That's one of those no-win questions, right?" Mackie tried to break
the silence, doing a horible job.
"The infamous group, together as usual." Leon and Daley stepped in,
grabbed two chairs from another table, and joined the group.
"Not interrupting anything, are we?" Usually the group was talkitive,
but not today, Daley noticed.
"No, just a thought." Now that Sylia had dismissed the question the
Knight Sabers felt better.
"Good, because there is something I've been meaning to ask you
about..." Leon pulled a sheet of paper from his jacket and gave it to
Nene.
"This file showed up on my computer when I checked it a little over a
week ago. The eleventh, I think..." He handed the paper to Nene.
"Where the hell did-" Nene jumped up and started straight for Leon.
Priss and Linna jumped up, Linna knocking over her drink. They held her
back.
"What's on the paper?" Priss stuggled against Nene. She had never
seen her like this.
"How many other people have you shown this to?!?!"
"Oh, just Daley...And the chief, and..."
Nene knocked Priss and Linna down and charged straight at Leon. She
slipped on Linna's spilt bannana milkshake and landed flat on her back.
Everyone started laughing.
"Here Mackie, I made a copy just for you." Leon smiled as he handed a
sheet to Mackie.
Mackie smiled. "I can see why I married you, Nene..." He flipped the
paper for everyone to see. A picture of Nene in lingerie. On the side was
printed in computer type: A LITTLE GIFT FROM YOUR FRIENDS IN THE FUTURE.
"The other Mackie..." Sylia smiled.
"That also came with this." Leon handed a sheet to Priss. Mackie
scampered over to see if it would be like Nene's picture.
"What is it?" Nene picked herself up off the floor.
"It's a police report. The day you arrested me." She looked at him.
"That's why you hated me so much?" Leon finally put the pieces
together.
Priss sat back down. As long as Leon hadn't known about the arrest,
there had been that sense of mystery in their relationship...That was gone
now...
"Maybe you guys can explain this." Daley leaned back in his chair as
he ordered a beer from the waitress. "This ought to be good."
The group looked at Sylia for permission. True, it was against the
rules, but Leon and Daley knew enough about the Knight Sabers where it
wouldn't matter.
"It's against the rules." Sylia tried to keep a stern face as she
said it.
"Same old Sylia. Time and time again." Nene groaned, along with the
others.
"But sometimes you can bend the rules. After all..." Sylia couldn't
resist the obvious irony.
"...Times change."
Leon and Daley looked on quizzically as the Knight Sabers laughed.
And listened intently as they began to relate the two week-long story that
took place in the span of a few seconds...
Sylia smiled as Mackie started bragging about how *he* had been the
one to go undercover with Genom to make the phaser. As she looked around
the table at everyone smiling and laughing, she knew these were her Knight
Sabers. Reika would never replace her, or any other member of the
team...To do so would be to lose the true purpose of the Knight Sabers.
The Knight Sabers were not a vigilante team. Nor were they a
mercenary unit. The Knight Sabers were not even the hardsuited individuals
that one might see on the eleven o'clock news fighting boomers. They were
close group...a family. And nobody could ever replace any one of them.
After all, who could replace the Knight Sabers?
*****?????*****
The red eyes shone in the dim light of the closed down laboratory...
"Secondary memory core 73% recoverable." The computer said.
"Recover all available files. Have you finished scanning the other
components?"
"Affirmative. One seems to be a modified and highly-advanced flight
system. The other seems to be some sort of visual and sensor impairment
device."
"Is it possible to create more of them with devices from this time?"
"Affirmative. It is possible to create an older version of these
devices, however, they will not have the effiency of these pieces."
"Understood, begin listing everything it will take to make this
cruder duplicate."
"Listing will take approximatly one hour."
"Excellent." Largo swiveled his chair to face the window.
"Thank you for the gifts, Knight Sabers."
****Megatokyo National Cemetery-7:13PM, December 20, 2034****
Priss' bike slowed near the entrance of the cemetery. She got off and
walked inside.
HERE LIES SYLVIE, BELOVED FRIEND WHO IS PERHAPS MORE HUMAN THAN ALL
OF US. Priss looked at the engraving. She knelt and said a small prayer
nearby.
"One day, Sylvie, I'll find a way to bring you back to us."
*****Megatokyo-1:27PM, December 21, 2034*****
The redhaired woman walked into the room, hit the button for the
answering machine, and set her groceries down.
"Hi, mom? It's Nene."
"Nene??" Her mother nearly froze in surprise.
"Mom, I just called to say that I'm alright...and, I'm going to come
and see you this New Year if you like. I'm so sorry I haven't said
anything, I just...I really don't have an excuse. See you this New
Year...and Mom...I love you."
*****Megatokyo-5:52PM, December 21, 2034*****
"Hey, thanks for the ride home, Priss." Nene smiled. A rare instance
where Priss wasn't making fun of her. Nene couldn't help but think how
much Priss was unlike her namesake.
"Hey, wait." Priss stuck her foot out to stop the door from closing.
"I heard you're going back home."
Nene opened the door again. She was staring at the floor.
"No, I'm just going to tell my mother I'm okay."
"What did Sylia say?"
"She said that if I trust them then I have permission to tell them
about the Knight Sabers."
Priss smiled. "Must be nice to have someone to go home to on New
Years."
"Yeah." Nene whispered. Priss turned to leave.
"Hey Priss." Nene called.
"Yeah?"
"My parents love company, maybe you'd like to come along?"
"Thanks, but I don't want to get in the way of a family reunion..."
Priss called back from the stairs.
Nene nodded. "Always Sylia's, right?" She called as she closed the
door.
"Yeah, always Sylia's..." Priss whispered over her shoulder.
*****Megatokyo-10:00PM, December 21, 2034*****
"You Priss Asagiri?" the man on the other side of Priss' door said.
"Depends on who wants to know."
"Postal Service. We got a letter for you."
Priss opened the door expecting a surprise. Why would someone need to
send her a letter?
Her surprise was that he was exactly who he said he was.
"Sign here."
"Don't you just drop these in mailboxes?" Priss looked at the normal
sized envelope. Nothing special.
"Normally. But this one has been in our possesion for more than a
year. Told us to deviler it to this place, today, at ten."
"Who?"
"I'm supposed to know?" The man drove off.
Priss walked back inside and tore open the letter:
Dear Priss,
If both of us are right with our timing you should recieve this
letter approximately ten days after you return to your normal time. Since
I am not sure I will ever return to my correct place in space/time or see
you again, this was the only way I am sure you will be able to hear what I
want to say.
A few days ago, I saw you bury me, or at least, the other me. I never
knew I could find such a friend. I almost caused your death, and yet, you
cried for me as you might your own sister. I must say that I couldn't have
wanted anything else written on my tombstone.
We didn't have much time to be friends, but you and the Knight Sabers
are the closest thing I have to a family. Does it hurt you that I'm not
there? The day will come when the Sylvie you know, from your world, will
live again. It's all a matter of time.
I sat down with the intention of writing you a long letter telling
you how I feel. Now I can find nothing more to say. Perhaps I won't need
to say anything else. Do you understand what I have been trying to tell
you?
You are a strong woman, and you can take care of yourself, but both
you and I know that it is impossible to go through life alone, without
your freedom to be with your friends. That is what I died for, and that is
what Anri died for. The Knight Sabers will take care of you until I
return, for they are your true friends. Stay safe, for both of our sakes.
Your Dearest Friend,
Sylvie
Sylvie's letter seemed to only make Priss more confused about this
this wreck she had come to accept as her life.
"Sylvie, when you do come back, the Knight Sabers will be waiting for
you. We'll be waiting for you to take you place with us."
Priss picked up the phone and hit number four on the speed dialer.
"Nene?"
Nene appeared, she was sitting on her bed, doing her nails. She
stopped when she saw Priss.
"Priss. Are you okay?"
"Just fine." She wiped away a small tear that was beginning to form
in her eye. "Does that offer to introduce me to your family still stand?"
Nene smiled.
"Yes, it does."
END~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~