***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.