Life was good in Megatokyo.  The shadow of Genom had
been lifted, and the mad boomer rampages had come to an end. 
For the first time in 
some years, we knew true peace, and we found ourselves
looking to the future with hope.  It was a pleasant change.
     None of us knew where to go.  We had been in the
vigilante business so long, that it had taken over much of
our lives.  Free of the burden, we began to dream again. 
While we agreed that the Knight Sabers would remain as a
deterrent against future activity by a revived Genom, none
of us expected any problems.  Most of the old Genom's
executives would be in prison for years to come.  The
megacorp was back to building cars.
     If any of us reveled in our new-found freedom, it was
Priss.  Always having to be paranoid had taken its toll on
her, and she was weary of it.  Shortly after our raid on
Genom's headquarters, she released an album, and it was
easily her best work ever.  It seemed that she might even
find her break this time.
     Indeed, it was a better world in which we lived.  We
had survived our most difficult trial, and passed through
our darkest hour.  Though not unscathed, we were unbroken,
and we truly believed it was all over.  We could not have
been more wrong.
     It was less than a month before the uprisings began.


***********************************************************

Stormwalker <stormwalker@airmail.net> presents . . . 

                  Bubblegum Collapse

  A Bubblegum Crisis fanfiction by Douglas A. Reeves

*********************************************************** 
 
Part One - Revolution!

     Leon McNichol sighed as he looked out across the front
line.  His Third AD Police Mobile Force was being pounded
into the pavement by a ragtag but well-armed collection of
boomers, and he could see few options.
     "Prepare to fall back," he ordered.  Another city block
lost.
     Suddenly, a familiar voice cut in on his radio.  "Get
your men down," it warned, "We're coming in!"
     Taking heart, Leon gave the order.  The AD Police
scrambled for cover, ducking behind their barricades, and
only seconds later the KnightWing blazed overhead with a
demonic howl.  A hail of missiles was released from her
wingracks, wreaking havoc among the exposed boomers, and on
its heels came the battlecry.
     "Knight Sabers, sanjo!" Priss yelled as four armored
figures dropped into the battle.  Acting as one, they
charged into the heart of the fray.
     "Nene, start jamming," Priss ordered.
     "Jamming active.  Burn-through in fifteen seconds."
     "Move quick!"
     Linna needed no encouragement.  Fifteen seconds of near
invisibility was a precious gift to her style of fighting,
and immediately she began to take advantage of it.  Leaping
forward, she deftly evaded the nearest boomers' blind fire
and landed softly behind it.  As soon as her feet hit the
ground, she spun around, letting the razor-whips trail out
from her body, and the boomer collapsed in pieces. 
     Christine smirked.  She had never quite understood the
way in which Linna's style more resembled dance than combat,
but she could not dispute the lethal nature of her art. 
Still, she herself preferred the direct approach.  Raising
her arm, she fired her devastating pulse cannon at a nearby
boomer.  Waves of destructive force pummeled the target, and
with a shower of sparks it fell also. 
     "Five seconds," Nene warned.
     "Right," Priss answered, firing another pair of
flechettes at a particularly agile foe.  Missing yet again,
she cursed under her breath. "How can he dodge what he can't
see?" she muttered.
     "The jamming's not perfect," reminded Nene.  Hanging
back from the fight because of the power drain imposed by
the jamming systems, she prepared for action.  In just a
second, the boomers' sensors would adjust for the
interference . . . 
     "Burn though," she cautioned, shutting off the
now-useless systems.
     "Just in time!" Priss called out as her target exploded
under the force of one of her HEAP shells.  Once rare, the
High Explosive Armor Piercing rounds now comprised the bulk
of her ammunition.
     "Watch yourself, Priss," warned Sylia, far above in the
KnightWing.  "Two on your left."
     "I've got one of them," Nene called, activating her
synapse-scramblers.  The target boomer, a Bu-12B, froze,
then dropped to its knees.  Firing her arm cannon at the
stationary target, she effectively beheaded it.            
"Thanks." Priss said, bringing her arm cannon to bear
on the other. Firing another of her precious HEAP rounds,
she smiled with satisfaction as the target blew up.
     Slowly, deliberately, they began to advance on the
boomers.  Still, Leon realized, they could not keep it up
indefinitely.  Priss would run out of ammunition eventually,
and without that striking power their assault would be
considerably weakened.  Still, the boomers were now on the
defensive...   "What are you waiting for?" he ordered his
men...  "attack!"
     With a resounding cheer, as if they had been hoping for
the order, the AD Police rejoined the battle.  The Knight
Sabers' charge became the spearhead of a massive
counterassault.  Quickly, the tables were turned. The more
humanoid of the boomers realized they were beaten and fled,
and the combat types that remained lacked the tactical
ability to hold the line alone.  In minutes, certain defeat
had become decisive victory.
                  * * * * * * * * *
     Once the battlefield was clear, Mackie flew back in to
pick up the team.  On their way home, they found many things
to discuss.
     "Well, we kicked some ass out there today," Priss
grinned.
     Nene sighed.  "I suppose it's too much to hope that
they won't be back."
     Nodding solemnly, Sylia agreed.  "This was only one of
many flashpoints across the city today.  More and more
boomers are rising up in arms."
     "Almost like a revolution," Christine observed
ominously.
     "That's a frightening thought," said Linna.
     "Quite," agreed Sylia.   "And seemingly accurate."
     "But... why?" Nene asked.
     "They want their freedom..." Priss whispered,
memories washing over her like a flood, "remember Sylvie." 
She hung her head, "and Anri."
     "But Sylvie wasn't like that!" Nene protested.
     "Wasn't she?" Sylia asked softly.  "Though she hated
herself for it, she was willing to kill for her goals."
     Priss bit her lip.  "Yes.  Besides, some of the
combat-type boomers are just killing machines anyway.  It's
all they know."
     "And with no masters..." Linna continued.  "This is
partly our doing, isn't it?"
     "Yes," Sylia sighed.  "It is indeed."
                  * * * * * * * * *
     "This is bad," Linna shook her head, looking at the
newspaper.  The headline told the whole story.  "BOOMER
UPRISINGS PLAGUE MEGATOKYO!  AD Police suffer heavy losses."
     "AD Police can't handle it." Priss scowled.  "They
should call in the military."
     Linna shook her head, indicating another headline. 
"They've got their own problems."
     "Damn... their boomers, too?"
     "Boomers all over the world.  Megatokyo is going to be
our war."
     "We're not ready for this."
     Linna looked up, worry obvious on her face, "I know."
                  * * * * * * * * *
     Sylia looked apologetic as she addressed them.  "I
don't want to ask this of you, but events have given me no
choice.  The conflicts are escalating into a full-scale war,
and only we have the firepower to fight it.  This will be a
dangerous time for you all."
     Priss nodded.  "We're all a part of this, Sylia"
     "Are we, really?" Sylia looked down at her useless
legs.  "I do not wish to send you into danger when I cannot
go myself."
     "We know that, Sylia," Linna comforted.  "We know you
would be with us if you could."
     "And you do help us," Priss pointed out.  "Without you,
there wouldn't be a Knight Sabers."
     "Nevertheless, I send you into ever-increasing danger."
     "And you have to ask for more, don't you?" Priss
completed the thought.  "This has to become a full-time job
if we want to have any hope of winning."
     "Yes." Sylia nodded.
     "We are willing," Linna spoke up.
     "We have to be," Priss continued.  "Nobody else can."
     Nene nodded in agreement.  "The AD Police are badly
outmatched.  It's up to us."
     "As for me..." Christine closed, "this is all I
have.  Whatever you do, I'm there."
     Sylia nodded, proud of the strength of the team she had
assembled. "Very well.  We will go to war."
                  * * * * * * * * *
     Sylia stared at the image which rotated on the screen
in front of her -- that of Priss's hardsuit.  She sighed
deeply as she realized what was to come.  The Knight Sabers
were to face their greatest challenges yet, and they would
do it without her.  A pang of guilt stung her soul; she did
not want to endanger them... but she had no choice.
     Through their years together, she had come to regard
them as family.  Sometimes they were as daughters to her, at
other times sisters.  Other than Mackie, they were the only
family she had, and she treasured them.  To see them in
danger froze her heart, even when she had been in the midst
of it.  To be forced to watch from outside amplified the
pain.
     After a few moments, she wearily drew herself back to
the task at hand.  Over half the systems on the computer
model were overlaid in red, indicating that they were to be
redesigned.  With the new battles ahead, they would have to
be deadlier than they had ever dared, and the current suits
were simply not up to the task.  The new ones would be.
     "If I will send you to war," she whispered, "You will
be ready."
     Still... there was more to readiness than combat
capapbility.  War was a devastating thing, demanding an
ever-increasing part of the soul of the warrior.  They had
tasted freedom--freedom from fear, from pain, from fighting--and
now it had been taken from them.  So far, they had
handled it well... but the worst was yet to come.  She
feared for them, as always.
                  * * * * * * * * *
     "Here we go again... Knight Sabers, sanjo!" Priss
cried, throttling up her Typhoon III motoslave and charging
toward the battle.
     "Be careful," Sylia's voice warned, "They seem to have
appropriated some sort of superweapon."
     "Wonderful," Priss thought sarcastically, remembering
their experience with the D.D.  "This'll be fun."
     "This model lacks the nuclear self-destruct," Sylia
breathed a sigh of relief as she looked up its
specifications.
     "Good thing to know," Linna said dryly.  "Let's get
this over with." Leaping from her motoslave, she watched it
transform beneath her and press the attack.  Using her jump
unit to propel herself forward, she fell directly atop the
first group of boomers.  Unable to defend against both the
motoslave and Linna, they evaluated the former as a greater
threat.  It took Linna five seconds to demonstrate their
error.
     Seeing the two smoking hulks at Linna's feet and the
battlemover occupied with Priss, Christine targeted a 55-C
with her energy web. Catching him off guard, she pressed the
attack with the blade in her gauntlet.  The boomer tried to
dodge, but was too thoroughly entangled and was struck
across the torso.  Sparks flew as the weapon sliced through
critical circuitry, and the boomer collapsed.
     "Nene?" Priss prompted.
     "Jamming's not going to be effective with that
battlemover here," Nene answered.
     "Great," was the muttered response.  Nene spotted an
older boomer that looked like it was giving orders and
powered up her scrambler.  It fell, but two women came to
its aid.  Hesitating, Nene was at first confused until her
sensors clarified the situation for her.  "There are 33-S-type
boomers here," she warned, "Don't let them trick you."
     "Probably one in the battlemover," Priss scowled.  This
was getting thornier and thornier with each passing minute.
     "Almost certainly," Sylia affirmed.
     "Whatever it is, its doing things I didn't think armor
like that could," Priss muttered as the battlemover dodged
another of her attacks. "I'm going to have to fight it up
close."
     "Be careful!" Linna warned.
     "Always..." Priss answered, her voice trailing off
as she jumped to the offensive.  Firing two flechettes at
point-blank range, she then ripped them out and dug her
fingers into the monstrosity's armor.  Slowly, she could
feel the plate coming loose, but the battlemover thrashed
around, trying to rid itself of her.
     All around them, the battle raged on.  A flare of
Linna's Knuckle Bomber marked the destruction of another
boomer, and Christine's pulse cannon felled still more. 
Priss was oblivious to all of this as she struggled to bring
down the beast.  Its arms flailed around, trying to grab her
and tear her free, but somehow she managed to avoid its
grasp.  Finally, her tenacity was rewarded.  With a metallic
shriek, the rear armor of the superweapon tore free, and
Priss fired a HEAP shell into the exposed interior.
     The battlemover's insides exploded through its front,
spraying hydraulic fluid and shrapnel everywhere.   When the
smoke cleared, Priss could see that the battle was over. 
With their vanguard destroyed, the boomers were fleeing. 
Looking at the smashed armor, she caught a glimpse of its
dead operator.
     It was, indeed, a 33-S boomer.  One that looked a lot
like Sylvie.  Priss felt a little sick at her stomach, then
slumped down beside the hulk.
     "Damn," she whispered.
                  * * * * * * * * *
     "Damn," Priss muttered, smashing her armored fist into
a convenient bulkhead.
     Sylia sighed.  The KnightWing wasn't designed to take
that kind of punishment from the INSIDE.  "Priss, I know
you're upset..."
     "Of all the damn coincidences, why'd it have to look
like Sylvie? There must be hundreds of different-looking
33-S's."
     "I don't know... but looks don't mean anything,"
Linna pointed out. "It was trying to kill you, you know."
     "I know..." she shook her head, collapsing into a
chair.  Fighting with anything that looked that HUMAN left a
bad taste in her mouth... this had just brought it out a
little more.  "It's just bad memories... I'll get over
it."  Nagging doubts usually forced to the back of her mind
came to her again... did they have something to fight
for, after all?  And who was she to deny them?
     Then, the greater part of her spoke up.  She was human,
that was who she was... and as long as the boomers were
killing people, she would fight them, and she would fight to
win.  No matter how it made her feel when it was over.

**********
END PART ONE