This took less time to finish than I thought it would. Please read and
C&C (even a little comment is nice).
Bubblegum Chronos
by Ben Kosse
Madigan approached the nervous junior scientist; her lavendar hair
perfectly still, as she walked. She was worring him more and more with each
passing step. Alan was brilliant, both he and Madigan knew that his
brilliance and insecurity were the reasons he was hired by Genom. Now, his
brilliance was about to be put to the test in this, his most eccentric
theory yet--that objects in another dimension could be brought into this one.
"Alan, are you ready?" Madigan's emotionless voice chilled Alan to the bone.
"Y--Yes, ma'am." He turned towards the beautiful woman.
"Alright, then do it." Still emotionless. Her honed skills of subtle
intimidation had been taught by Quincy, Genom's founder and chairman for life.
Alan looked away, then loaded in a file containing the precise
five-dimensional location of his universe. This, he followed with another
file containing the five-dimensional location of what Alan called the
"sister universe." The sister universe had a nearly identical star formation
as his, and because of this, Alan was quickly able to locate a sister earth.
This earth, he had learned, had just started its 21st century.
Alan located the person he was going to transport in the four-dimensional
space of the subject's universe and programmed those into the massive
supercomputer as well. Alan's nervousness was completely gone while his
fingers sped along the keyboard. But, the relief within his technological
haven was short lived, ending when he looked back towards Madigan.
"Ma'am... w..would you like to have the honor?"
"Just bring him here."
"Yes, yes. I'll do that." Alan's hand moved towards the key which would set
off the transdimensional warp. The entire control room was basked in silence
when the key was pressed.
*****
Ben Kosse was driving towards his friend's house. It was going to be a
great weekend of anime and RPG's to celebrate his latest breakthrough. The
small company he worked for had just received patent rights for a trinary
transistor and matching trinary computer chip, which would hopefully
revolutionize an industry crushed by a combination of differing "standards"
and focus on the comapanies and commercial buyers, rather than the users. He
was distracted by his hopes, and didn't notice the purple light which
clipped off the rear bumper of his 380-ZX.
*****
"Well, where is he?" Madigan calmly asked Alan.
"He...He didn't make it. I missed."
"What! How could you miss?"
"I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, ma'am."
"Do it again."
Alan relocated the subject in the his universe again and attempted the
transport again.
*****
"What the hell?!" Ben exclaimed as he saw a purple light in his rear view
mirror. Suddenly, his view was much clearer out the mirror, and it only took
him seconds to realize that the back foot or so of his car was no longer
attached. In fact, he couldn't see it on the road, either. It was as if it
disappeared completely.
He gunned the motor.
*****
"Let me hazard a guess. You missed again." Madigan's still emotionless
voice didn't mask her obvious displeasure.
"I don't understand it. I opened the gate on his car. He should be here."
Anger was obvious in Alan's voice. His theories were perfect, his equations
were perfect, the machine was perfect. Yet, the subject wasn't here, but
still in his universe.
"His car. As in moving vehicle."
"Yes, damn it! What did you think?"
Madigan looked at him, pausing for an effect which was not lost on the
young scientist. His eyes widened in fear. "Two things, don't patronize me
and you said you targeted where he was. How long does the gate take to form?"
Alan stuttered out his response while the blood was quickly draining from
his face. "Half...Half a second to form, and, a-another second to stabalize.
I formed the g-gate a-around his car so he couldn't t-turn away in time."
Madigan did some quick algebra in her head, while watching computer monitor
which displayed the current velocity of their subject. "Fool. He moved out
of range duing the time it took the gate to form. He's moving you idiot!
Form the gate thirty meters in front of him, in the direction he's moving."
Alan paled even more when Madigan stared at him.
"Alan. Do it."
He punched in the new numbers and fired.
*****
Ben's stomach tuned. He had a feeling that something very wrong was about
to happen. One second later, he saw a purple disk in front of him.
Instincively, he slammed on the brakes and spun the wheel sideways.
It was too late, and he drove through it, right into a dumpster. In the
split second it took him to fly out of his car and into the side of the
dumpster, he noticed that this wasn't the same street he had been driving
down. Then, he blacked out.
*****
"Now what?" Madigan was fuming.
"He's here." Alan saw Madigan's scorn and rephrased his statement. "He's in
our universe, and, I think, on our planet."
"Find him."
Alan's fingers tapped away on the keyboard while he talked. "It will take
at least two hours to calculate the transdimensional coordinate map. I
opened the gate here, and I thought that he would pass from one gate to the
other. Obviously, the gates aren't connected."
*****
Priss was exhausted, but exhilarated at the same time. She had an awesome
concert at Hot Legs, and was hoping to finally complete a favorable deal
with a recording studio. She grabbed her helmet and walked out the back
door. What she saw astounded her.
A 1992 Nissan 380-ZX had crashed into the dumpster on the other side of the
alley. The car was missing a good two feet from the back end of the trunk.
It wasn't hard to figure out that the prone man laying, bleeding, on the
hood of the car had flown out, through the windshield and into the dumpster
before rolling to a halt on the hood.
Priss dashed across the alleyway to inspect the wreckage. The man was
groaning, and had revived to a semi-concious state. Miraculously, he hadn't
broken any of his bones, nor did he seem to be seriously injured. Priss
spoke first.
"Hey, you OK?"
He groaned, slightly louder this time. It looked like he was nodding.
"Doesn't look like anything's broken. I'm gonna get you to a hospital, OK?"
His eyes flashed open briefly. Through cloudy eyes, he saw a woman's
face. A frighteningly familair face. He saw the red leather jacket and
gloves. He couldn't believe it--he was looking at Priss Asagiri.
This time, he definitely shook his head. He was coming to, though he might
black out at any time.
"What? What the hell kind of an idiot are you? Come on, let's go." Without
waiting for a response, she rolled him over. Then, she blanched.
The back of his blue denim jacket had the words "Bubblegum Crisis", drawn
in a round, pink font. Below the words, there was a picture of a blue suit
of power armor with a two faces, lined up vertically, to the right of it.
The faces were clearly Priss', though it was what Priss would've looked like
if she was an anime character. Beside those faces were two drawings of Priss
in her concert get-up, both facial shots. Below these pictures were the
words "Prisila Asagiri" and below that, from right to left, a white suit of
power armor, a pink and purple suit, and finally a green suit. Faces were
under these suits, with names below the faces: "Sylia Stingray," "Nene
Romanova," and "Linna Yamazaki."
"You're right, you're not going to the hospital." Priss then rolled the man
over, onto his back again, and ran to a nearby pay phone.
The phone rang twice before a deep pitched and calm female voice came over
the speakers. The woman's face was slightly rounded, and she had thin lips.
Her black hair had a wave in the front, and was perfectly styled. "Hello."
"Sylia, get here quick, and bring the hardsuits and van. Someone knows
about us. I'm right behind Hot Legs."
"Right." The phone disconnected and Priss ran back to the man on the car.
He was unconscious again.
Several minutes later, a large gray truck drove down the alley. It stopped
in front of the door behind Hot Legs, blocking any exit from that door.
Priss got inside the back of the van.
Four figures, all clad in power armor, then exited from the back of the
unmarked truck. They were the same armor suits pictured on the back of the
man's jacket. The figures inspected the area around the car, then the purple
and pink armored suit carefully eased the unconscious man off the hood of
the car, and carried him into the back of the truck. The other three suits
hefted the car and walked it towards the truck, placing it in the back end
as well, then following it inside.
"All right, Mackie. Let's go."
"Right, Sis."
--
Ben Kosse bmk7411@cs.rit.edu
BGC Otaku and worshipper of the Red-Eyed Goddess and her music.
Anime, RPG's, computers, poetry (read/write), music (listen/compose).
Author of the Bubblegum Crisis theme pack (see the homepage below).
Homepage with anime and other interests. (http://www.rit.edu/~bmk7411)