For Jeanne Hedge, who waited not-so-patiently. :)
What has gone before:
Chapter 1:
In the dead of night, five gigantic mecha emerge from the depths
of Tokyo Bay and smash a GENOM warehouse, leaving no witnesses except
for a trucker, Jim Ashima, and his companion, Clara. When Sylia sees a
news report on this, she wonders if the Knight Sabers are enough to
handle the problems of MegaTokyo any longer. She begins making plans to
expand the Knight Sabers, a move prompted in part by Reika Chang (AKA
Vision) visiting the city. Meanwhile, Leon and Daley begin
investigating the destruction of the warehouse and find a giant
footprint from the mecha.
Priss visits Linna and goes on at length about how she is going to
break up with Leon, but Linna has heard it all before and is not
impressed. She and Daley have been listening to the couple bitch, moan,
break up and get together again for too long. Their talk is interrupted
by Reika, who pays a surprise visit on Linna, announcing that she is
moving to MegaTokyo on a permanent basis. Priss immediately declares
that they should hold a party.
The party goes well, until Priss tries to prove her sobriety (or
lack of it) and injures herself. Reika is shocked by the speed in which
Priss's cuts heal and the story of how Priss came to be enhanced by
nanotechnology is told. Vision tries to apologize for her reaction, but
Priss's temper flares and she attacks the other singer. She comes to
her senses before any harm is done and runs out of the apartment,
followed by Leon. The others discuss how Priss has been on the edge of
true cyberpsychosis ever since her rampage through MegaTokyo. Outside,
Leon catches up to Priss and convinces her that he will be there to help
her, no matter what happens. They kiss and return to the party, where
Sylia offers Reika a place in the Knight Sabers. Reika accepts.
Chapter 2:
Linna is put in charge of Reika's training, running the singing
star ragged their first morning. Meanwhile, Jim Ashima, escapes from a
contingent of security boomers into the anonymity of the Canyons, a
section of MegaTokyo devastated by the Second Kanto earthquake. The
boomers killed his companion Clara and he swears to find some way to
avenge her.
At ADPolice HQ, Leon runs into Nene (almost literally) and she
gives him a disk with some info she says he'll find useful on his case.
Leon then sees the new Chief, who assigns him some help: Former Chief
Goto of the old Patlabor command, SV2.
Sylia meets with Fargo, who tells her about Jim Ashima. She puts
him on the trucker's trail and he promises to find him. Linna and Reika
got out to dinner and Linna tells her about the Second Kanto Earthquake
and how her family survived it. Linna's father ran a martial arts dojo
and had organized his students into rescue parties after the quake.
Linna had to watch a very good friend of hers die in the aftermath.
Linna admits to Vision that she's not sure why the Knight Sabers keep
fighting GENOM, except for the fact that there is no one else.
Largo, in his role as Brian Larsen, GENOM Special Assistant to the
Chairman, visits the site of the new GPCC building. A GENOM VP named
Anderson had been found guilty of kickbacks and fraud and had been
relieved. The VP, a man named Anderson, had also been responsible for
covering up the Warehouse incident and had sent the combat boomers to
kill Jim Ashima. His heavy-handed incompetence had gotten him
terminated. While Largo overlooks the site, the mechs attack, flying in
at low altitudes. Largo taps the OMS (OverMind Control System) and uses
it to send every construction boomer at the site against the mechs,
heavily damaging at least one of them and forcing them to flee. The OMS
then almost purges Largo for unauthorized access.
Priss and Leon go on a date, but it is interrupted by a gang
mugging. Leon is knocked out while Priss, with her enhanced physiology,
is only stunned. The gang is about to murder Leon and have some fun
with Priss when Priss attacks them. When Leon comes to, he finds Priss
sitting amid the bloody, mangled corpses of the gang. She almost
attacks Leon, but stops herself in time. Looking at herself, she begins
to scream and claw at her eyes before fainting. Leon uses her Knight
Saber communicator to call for help.
Chapter 3:
Chairman Quincy holds a meeting with Wilhelm Godhardt, a
representative from SCHAFT, a German-based mecha company that GENOM is
considering working with on a joint project. With the chairman is Dixon
Kelly, a Special Assistant with a cyberjack enhancement, and Asuma
Shinohara, one of GENOM's vice-presidents. Shinohara objects to the
proposed project, while Kelly supports it. Quincy tells Godhardt they
need more time to decide and, after the SCHAFT man leaves, chastises
Shinohara for belaboring his points. Outside of the GENOM Tower,
Godhardt meets with SCHAFT Security Systems Colonel Johann Hineman in
his limo and they discuss the meeting, which they reveal to be no more
than a cover for something else.
Reika goes to Nene's apartment so Nene can work on constructing
the programs for the singer's hardsuit. She catches the hacker asleep,
but they soon get to work. Nene reveals she would rather work at
Raven's Garage on this, but Priss is there, recuperating from some
incident.
At Raven's Garage, Priss wakes up. Leon hovers over her,
concerned, and at first she can't remember what happened. It comes back
to her quickly however. After Leon leaves, Priss eavesdrops on him and
Sylia discussing how serious this is and that Priss may have to be
institutionalized if they can't find a way to help her.
Nene and Reika arrive to do some work on the computer for Reika's
suit. The hacker takes Reika on a tour of cyberspace, teaching her
about how the hardsuit operating system is a learning system that can
almost read the user's mind through biofeedback. They work on the look
of Reika's suit. Finally, Nene talks Reika into a combat simulation,
explaining that Sylia wants Reika combat ready as soon as possible.
At the ADPHQ, Leon and Daley discuss the GPCC battle (which GENOM
is calling an industrial accident) and Leon finally views the disk Nene
gave him. It has information on an old form of mecha known as a Labor,
which was used for many different purposes until the rise of the boomer
phased them out of business. The disk also lists three companies that
once built Labors and are still in existence: Shinohara-Toyohata
Industries, a GENOM subsidiary; Barumi Tech, now a computer software
company; and SCHAFT Enterprises.
Fargo contacts Sylia, informing her that an unknown group is
looking for powered armor operators. He tells her that it might be
connected with the group hitting GENOM sites. She decides that, with
Priss out of action, that Linna will have to check this lead out.
Priss slips out of Raven's garage, raiding the Knight Sabers'
lockers for clothes. Nene and Reika are busy on the combat sim, were
Nene is trashing the rock singer, despite some inspired tactics by
Reika.
Sylia speaks to Linna about her undercover mission and Linna
accepts. However, before they can talk any further, Nene calls to tell
them that Priss is missing.
Chapter 4:
In the halls of GENOM, Largo discovers that the mechs he fought at
GPCC are known as Griffon Combat Labors, a specialized form of labor
originally constructed by SCHAFT. Dixon Kelly meets with Madigan,
another Special Assistant, whom Quincy has just recalled from Osaka.
She had been relegated to that post after the first encounter with
Largo.
Linna, Reika, and Nene meet at Raven's and discuss Priss's
disappearance and Linna's new assignment. Sylia checks out Priss's
trailer and finds Priss, but Priss goes so far as to shoot a hole in the
wall to keep Sylia from stopping her. Priss explains she needs to go
out on her own to find a solution to her problem and that no one else
can help her.
Fargo meets with the people looking for powered armor operators.
His contact is a young girl with green hair who seems incredibly naive.
He gives her a faked dossier on Linna. Once she leaves with it,
however, the contact drops her act and becomes totally professional.
She meets up with other members of her group and is addressed as the
Boss.
USSD, the United Nations Strategic Space Defense force which
controls the orbital laser satellites, has a meeting over what to do
about the mech attacks. The satellites recorded images of the attack on
GPCC. It is revealed that weather patterns in the MegaTokyo area have
been disrupted by a nuclear explosion in Siberia, as part of the Polar
War, and the USSD targeting programs have not adjusted yet. General
Griffith orders the satellites made ready in any event.
Leon has a talk with a veteran ADPolice officer, Sergeant Richard
Decker. Decker is a professional and also sports a cyberarm. Leon
talks to him about cyberpsychosis, hoping to discover a way to help
Priss. Decker tells him that it's Priss's fight. Only she can help
herself.
Meanwhile, Priss runs into some external troubles, namely a group
of bikers who want to have an interesting time with her.
Chapter 5:
Priss charges the bikers on her motorcycle, but they disable her
bike with a chain. She pulls her gun on them, but its barrel was bent
in the accident and is useless. For a moment, she almost falls into the
same bloodlust that claimed her before, but is saved by Kaz, the leader
of her old bike pack, who happens to come along.
Linna, meanwhile, has been recruited by the terrorists behind the
mecha attacks, the AGF (Anti-GENOM Front.) The Boss sees her personally
and inducts her into the band, showing her the Griffon labors they have
been using in the attacks.
Largo meets with Madigan and the two have a meeting of minds,
discovering that Anderson, the incompetent VP Largo terminated, may have
been the front man for someone else, setting GENOM up for a fall in the
near future. A quick search of the GENOM public database confirms this.
The two decide to discuss what to do over dinner.
Leon, Sylia, and Nene all conduct their private searches for
Priss, with no luck. Sylia begins to have doubts about her ability to
lead the group. Leon and Daley go to Shinohara-Toyohata Industries to
interview its president about labors. They arrive to find Goto already
there, talking with Asuma Shinohara. Asuma shows them his pet project,
a museum devoted to labors. There, they learn that the most likely
labor culprit is the Griffon, which was produced by SCHAFT. Further,
Goto reveals the possibility of a witness, Jim Ashima, who could
identify the Griffons and implicate SCHAFT. Furthermore, he says he has
a lead on where Ashima is, thanks to a "friend of a friend."
Chapter 6:
Priss and Kaz, after a day of bike riding, talk about Priss's
problem. Kaz tells her that she can't run away from her problems.
In the AGF's hideout, Linna takes part in a training simulation in
the Griffons, under the watchful eye of Bud, the man ho piloted the
original Griffon. Her fellow Griffon pilots, Max (a missile-happy
moron) and Dora (a quiet, but competent woman who is jealous of the
attention the Boss gives Linna) manage to do all right, but Linna is
"killed." Wilhelm Godhardt and Colonel Hineman meet with the Boss and
watch the exercise. They talk about one more mission before they try
for their real objective. Their plan is to blame the Griffon rampage on
GENOM, using the falsified information in the GENOM public database to
prove this. The furor over this will allow SCHAFT, they hope, a chance
to re-enter the Japanese market.
Nene searches the net for Priss, and finally decides to try and
raid the GENOM mainframes. She runs into Dixon Kelly who, with his
cyberjack, manages to easily dump her off the system and implant a virus
into her computer, erasing all her files. He also identifies her as a
Knight Saber, but doesn't follow the lead at this time, hoping to meet
her again on the nets.
Leon, Daley, Decker and his squad head off for the Canyons on a
false alert which they arranged so they can search for Ashima. A GENOM
informant in the ADPolice reports this to GENOM, and is then apprehended
by Chief Matsui. It turns out that Leon and Decker decided the best way
to find Ashima is to use GENOM to flush him out. It's dangerous, but
the Canyons has too many hiding places for their limited resources.
They no sooner arrive in the Canyons then they are attacked by some sort
of heavy ordnance.
Priss is still hanging out with the Pack, trying to sort out her
feelings when she is approached by Moro, the biker who tried to accost
her earlier. He insinuates that she and Kaz have a relationship and she
loses her temper, throwing him against a wall. He pulls a knife on her.
The red rage she felt before threatens to overwhelm her again, but she
thinks about what Kaz told her and beats it back, controlling it. She
defeats Moro, giving him a wedgie to remember her by. The Pack then
hears about another gang, the Black Scavs, attacking the ADPolice with
some arms they got from a backer. The Pack rides out to deal with this,
since the Scavs are on the Pack's turf.
At the AGF base, Linna and the Boss talk and the Boss intimates
she'd like to be more than friends and co-workers. Linna is very
nervous about that and puts her off. She then goes and sends a message
to Fargo, informing him of where the AGF is located. Dora watches this
and, after the other two leave, she sabotages Linna's Griffon.
Sylia, Nene, and Reika get suited up (Reika for the first time)
and head out in the KnightWing to deal with the Griffons.
The remaining members of the old SV2 Patlabor Unit 2 meet in a
Shinohara-Toyohata warehouse, where their old Ingram Patlabors have been
stored since the early 21st century. Goto has ordered the old machines
prepped for one last fight.
The KnightWing attacks the Griffon base on the Dream Island
landfill. The Griffons burst out of the base to deal with them. Linna
prepares to change sides, but the Boss is ready for that, activating a
restraining system in Linna's Griffon that gives her complete control
over it. She tells Linna it is based on the DD Battlemover. She then
makes Linna fire her missiles on the unsuspecting KnightWing. Sylia,
devastated by this latest apparent defection in the Knight Saber family,
freezes up and the KnightWing takes the missiles dead on.
And now, the conclusion...
Bubblegum Crash!
Angel of Light
Chapter 7
"In the early 2030's, boomer technology began to advance at a
prodigious rate. Modern technologists are often confused, however, by
the 'backsliding' that seems prevalent in that day and age. Even before
the unveiling of the Second Generation Boomer, GENOM had matter fusion,
self-aware AIs, and the top secret hyper-boomers. Why then, were the
models of the middle Thirties so limited?
"The answer is fear.
"GENOM began to fear their mechanoid slaves, fear that they may
rise against humanity. Only by limiting the capabilities of the
cyberdroids could GENOM hope to maintain its control. The OMS, their
much fabled control system, was still in the testing stage. Some
boomers showed the ability to resist it. GENOM's most prevalent
nightmare had to be a self-aware, fusion-capable hyperboomer with
delusions of godhood."
-- Dr. Sylvie McNichol, "The Age of the Knight Sabers," 2063.
For Linna, the KnightWing seemed to fall forever. When its lazy
fall finally ended, the impact knocked her Griffon to the ground,
bruising her as she was thrown against the restraints. Agonizing sobs
tore their way out of her breast until Milly's voice intruded.
"Stand up, Four." The Griffon obeyed mechanically and Linna could
do nothing to stop it. The gleaming metal bonds clamped around her
hands and feet, combined with her safety belt, held her almost immobile.
Dimly, she heard Milly ordering her Griffon to take the point as the
five-mecha terror squad marched toward GENOM Tower. Behind them, a
cloud of smoke rose from the center of the Dream Island landfill.
*****
Inside a small, dilapidated warehouse the intense activity ceased
for a moment. With a crackle of static, the radio announcer's voice was
loud in the sudden silence.
"We repeat our urgent announcement. Five gigantic boomers have
been spotted emerging from the waters of Tokyo Bay. The boomers are
almost eight meters tall and heavily armed. It is speculated that they
are part of some top secret military project. Police have no comment at
this time whether the boomers are connected with the explosion that
occurred earlier tonight at Dream Island. The ADPolice recommends that
you stay in your homes and take cover. If you can, please make your way
to the civil defense shelters. These boomers are considered highly
dangerous. We repeat, five--"
"Boss, what are we going to do? The Ingrams aren't ready yet!"
Shige asked, turning toward Goto.
Goto seemed unperturbed. "How much longer do you need, Shige-
san?"
"I could get one of them operational in about an hour. If I had
the old squad, 15 minutes for the lot of them." At Goto's nod, Shige
went back to work, hastily running the necessary checks to get the giant
labors functional again. Much of his time was spent trying to correct
the mistakes made by his "helpers."
"An hour?" Asuma exploded. "We can't waste that sort of time!"
Noa restrained her husband. "Asuma! Shige-san is doing what he
can. Yelling at the Chief won't help."
While husband and wife argued, Goto merely lit his cigarette. "I
don't see what alternatives we have--" His cellular phone interrupted
him. Paying no mind to Asuma (who was turning red with apoplexy), he
answered it. "Goto here." He listened to his phone intently. After a
minute, he said, "I understand. We'll be right there." He then turned
to Shige and asked, "Are the command cars okay, Shige-san?"
Shige looked up, "Yeah, they should be okay.... I used to tinker
with them in my off time."
"Shinohara, Ohta," Goto called while marching over to a series of
lockers. "We have a small problem in the Canyons. Security boomers and
a gang armed with heavy ordnance have pinned down some ADPolice
officers, including Detectives McNichol and Wong. Let's go help them
out and bring them back here."
"Help them out with what?" Asuma asked sarcastically.
In response, Goto unlocked one locker.
"Yes! There IS a God!" Ohta yelled happily.
A party was going on in the Canyons but no one wanted on the
invitation list. Gang members, boomers, and ADPolice officers blazed
away at each other savagely. In the center of the fracas, the remains
of an ADPolice transport burned merrily, thanks to a helpful dose of
napalm. Its composite hull, however, resisted the flame and the
occasional burst of heavy weapons fire with ease.
"Where did you get this monster?" Leon shouted at Decker from
inside the broiling oven the van had become.
Decker's soot-stained face broke into a grin, his white teeth
gleaming amid the black. "This is my baby, Leon!" he shouted back. "It
used to be a Combat Boomer Transport, but I picked it up surplus and put
it on the vehicle list!"
A loud explosion made talk impossible as the Scavs unloaded
another missile on the security boomers stalking the field of battle.
The boomers' particle beam weapons whined in answer. ADPolice officers
taking cover around the flaming wreck added their weapons to mix.
Nearby, someone screamed in pain then another explosion silenced them
forever.
"We can't stay pinned down here!" Leon yelled.
Daley looked up from where he was trying to get the truck's radio
to work. "The boomers are jamming us! I can't contact HQ!"
Leon nodded. "How's our friend?" He pointed his thumb at a
ragged homeless man curled up in the corner. Daley shrugged.
The man was Jim Ashima, for whom they had come into the Canyons to
collect. Leon had taken this squad down into the Canyons, hoping GENOM
would react and flush Jim into ADPolice hands. It had been a gamble.
GENOM had a very good chance of finding and killing Jim before the
ADPolice could protect him. The Canyons, however, was a rat's nest of
streets, collapsed buildings, and abandoned tunnels. A person could
hide for years in the rubble.
Unfortunately, the ADPolice had just entered the Canyons when a
local gang, the Black Scavs, protested. The ironic thing was that the
plan had worked. Jim Ashima had come running into their arms, followed
by a squad of GENOM boomers. Leon could have done without the boomers,
however, as they were striking at ADPolice and Scavs alike.
"Do you have any more surprises here?" Leon asked Decker, still
yelling over the din.
Decker grinned again. "Check the rear compartment!"
Leon went back to look. A moment later he returned and began to
swear at Decker, whose grin just got bigger and bigger.
Two Black Scavs in a building overlooking the trapped ADPolice
hoisted a round into their anti-tank weapon. Getting their backers to
pay for a replacement would be hard, but killing some cops was worth it.
They hadn't had this much fun in a long time.
One of them turned around to the door. "Dek! Where's that second
fucking round?!"
Dek didn't answer him, mainly because he was taking a little nap.
He had been looking very tired, so someone helped him catch up on his
sleep with the judicious application of a length of chain. Kaz, all six
feet ten inches of him, loomed over the Black Scav gunners, grinning.
"Now, boys...." Kaz drawled for effect. "What did I tell you
about having fun without inviting us?"
Priss let out a war cry as she led the Pack in on her borrowed
motorcycle. It had been a long time since she had taken part in a turf
war and she was having the time of her life. Around her, the rest of
the Pack spread out, looking for trouble.
Jingoro, a large biker with a chrome cyberarm and an impressive
collection of obscene words tattooed across his body, caught her
attention. He pointed to a boomer not fifty yards ahead. She nodded.
The boomer was facing away from them, trying to get a clean shot
at the ADPolice around the van. Its sensors alerted it to the sound of
approaching bikes, so it turned to face them.
It got its sophisticated head snapped off by a very UN-
sophisticated length of chain stretched between Priss and Jingoro as
they roared by at high speed, their enhanced bodies allowing them to
hold onto it. Jingoro dropped the chain and gave Priss a high five with
his cyberarm. They then turned to look for another target.
The sound of wrenching metal caught their attention. Priss turned
and saw something clawing its way out of the wrecked rear doors of the
ADPolice van. The flames and smoke made it hard to make out, but the
flashing shoulder lights gave her a good idea. Her suspicions were
confirmed a second later as someone in K-13V ADPolice power armor
stepped out of the smoke. With all the shit flying around, she could
think of only one person crazy enough to pull it off that stunt.
"Yeah!" Leon said, taking a step forward in his suit. Now it was
time to show these punks what the ADPolice was made of. Of course, the
K-13V would not have been his suit of choice for that. It was the
culmination of a "Build it cheaper, not better," philosophy and the
suits' track record reflected it. Still, it was better than nothing.
He looked around the street-cum-battlefield for a target. A
multitude presented themselves. Bikers, gangers, and boomers were
running around, shooting, grappling, and generally making a mess. Two
bikers had decapitated a boomer neatly with a chain, he noted idly.
Then he got a good look at one of them.
"Priss!" he yelled, starting toward her. He was halfway there
when a boomer decided he looked like a good target. It leaped, slamming
into him mid-torso. The K-13 groaned under the impact, its thin armor
shell buckling inward. Leon cursed and swung one fist at the boomer.
His punch caught it alongside the head, knocking it back a few inches.
The boomer turned back towards him, completely undamaged.
"Oh, shit," Leon said calmly. The boomer's red eyes seemed to
gleam in anticipation as it closed its fingers around the chest plate of
the K-13. Its fingers dug through the eggshell armor and it lifted the
power suit up off the ground. Leon threw several more punches, but they
seemed to have even less of an effect than the first.
"Decker, you ass! If you're going to steal a suit of armor, why
couldn't you have gotten a GOOD one?!" he snarled, helplessly.
BOOM!
Everyone stopped. That had not been an explosion or the sound of
a heavy weapon firing. Instead, it had been a deep, low boom that had
settled deep in the bones (or equivalent structures). Only Leon's
boomer took no notice, but that was because its entire torso had just
been smashed away. Most weapons, by nature of their function, make
holes in things. This was no different, really, except that the hole
was bigger than the boomer it hit.
At the end of the street, a small, stocky man held a Big Gun, the
wet dream of every gun fanatic in the world. Some of those present wept
at the sight of another man holding it.
BOOM!
Again, the gun spat fire. This time it caught the ground floor of
a building the Scavs were using. The entire structure seemed to jump,
then it began to collapse inward. The man with the Big Gun began to
laugh.
"I knew making a recoilless anti-labor gun was a mistake," the
man's partner groaned. He held a much smaller weapon, which he used on
any target that got too close. It spat out very small, high-speed
flechettes that tore through metal, stone, and flesh with equal ease.
Worse, the flechettes spread out, like shotgun blasts, doing incredible
damage over a wide area. Two boomers ran into his range and were
reduced to tinfoil.
The Scavs then, in their wisest decision of the day, decided they
had enough. Grabbing their weapons, they fled as best they could. The
chatter of ADPolice chainguns, the BOOMs of the rife, or the whisper-
quiet chuff of the flechettes followed them.
The boomers had less of an instinct for self-preservation. The
remaining ones charged blindly toward the two men. They were certain
that at least one of their number would get through. Several opened
their mouths, charging their particle weapons that would surely kill
these interlopers before they could fire.
They were wrong.
After the last boomer fell to the ground, the two men held their
weapons on the remaining ADPolice and Pack members. A tense silence
reigned. It was broken a second later as Goto stepped out onto the
battlefield.
"Good work, Shinohara, Ohta," he said.
*****
Nene woke suddenly, aware of someone kissing her. No, the person
was forcing air into her lungs! An uncontrollable urge to cough
suddenly seized her. She did so, sitting up suddenly. Her spasm
continued for several minutes.
Reika stood back, watching Nene carefully. The two Knight Sabers
were on a deserted stretch of the Tokyo Bay shoreline. They were wet
and bedraggled, with many, small, balloon-like floatation devices
adorning their armor. She had removed their helmets in order to help
Nene.
After Nene stopped coughing and seemed to be breathing normally,
Reika asked, "How're you feeling, Nene?"
"Like I just swallowed half the world's known pollutants." Nene
made a face and tried spitting to clear the taste in her mouth. "What
happened? Where's Sylia?"
Reika shrugged. "I was strapped into my seat on the KnightWing
when you suddenly yelled something about a missile lock. The next thing
I knew, there was a huge explosion underneath me and I was airborne."
She winced slightly. "I think I'll have some colorful bruises tomorrow.
I hit the water pretty hard."
As if reminded, Nene's body began to register their complaints
about what they had gone through that night. Everything seemed to ache.
The young Knight Saber closed her eyes and moaned lightly.
"I found you, floating face down in the water and hauled you
ashore. Good thing I know artificial resuscitation. You looked pretty
awful by that point."
"Thanks, Reika. Did you see any sign of Sylia?"
"No, but I saw that." Reika pointed across the bay to Dream
Island. The landfill was burning brightly, sending a large plume of
smoke into the muggy August sky. "It must be where the KnightWing went
down. Aviation fuel burns pretty hot. I guess it ignited the garbage."
Panic seized Nene for an instant, then she shoved it back. She
was the senior member here, for once, and she couldn't afford panic.
Carefully, she made herself run through her options.
"Okay," Nene said, exhaling slowly to calm herself. "I'm going to
search for Sylia's transponder. Give me my helmet." Reika handed it to
her and she put it on. Fortunately, the displays lit up. Her chest
armor had borne the worst of her damage and the entire suit was water-
resistant. She wouldn't want to fight hand-to-hand, as micro-fractures
covered her armor, but the ECM and communications systems were intact.
"Run a check on your armor, and let me know your status."
Reika nodded, and struggled to bend over and reach her helmet. It
was difficult with all the flotation devices. "How do you retract these
things, anyway?" she grumbled.
"Just puncture them with your blade," Nene said absently, putting
her suit to work. Normally she would uplink with the KnightWing, van,
or a Motoslave for the search, since they had more powerful sensors.
However, that wasn't an option right now The two antennae on her helmet
popped out and began to rotate.
The search quickly came back negative. Nene shook her head in
annoyance and ran the search again, and a third time. Finally she spoke
to Reika, who was busily popping flotation devices. "Nothing. Her
transponder must have been damaged." Nene didn't mention the other
alternatives, and neither did Reika.
"So what do we do now?"
"Used to be, Mackie would be nearby with the van for backup, but
since he went to Germany, that's no good. I don't know if Sylia had any
plans for what to do if the KnightWing went down." Nene racked her
brain, trying to remember if Sylia had ever mentioned something like
that to her. Then it hit her. "She DID tell me how to contact Fargo if
we ever had any trouble, though. It's a place to start."
Reika looked dubiously at Nene. "So, what? We go looking for a
phone?"
"Um, yeah."
"Nene!"
"What NOW?"
"Are you sure you want to go in there like THIS?"
"Do you want to go in there with just what we wear under these
suits?"
"Good point."
The pair was standing underneath a broken-down pier looking at the
Dox, a very disreputable nightclub catering to those of... wide-ranging
tastes, was the first place the two Knight Sabers had come upon which
might have a working phone. Since they washed ashore, they had found
only two pay phones (both out of order) and the few warehouses they had
broken into had been abandoned. When Reika and Nene had found the Dox,
they had watched the leather and vinyl clad patrons with some
trepidation.
I wish Priss was here, Nene thought as they went up to the door.
*****
Largo stepped off the lift and into the GENOM Operations center.
Technicians and analysts scurried around him. A 3D hologram of
MegaTokyo rotated slowly in the air above him like a vast, neon spider
web, showing a representation of the Griffon's progress. They were on a
direct beeline for the Tower. Blue and yellow arrows, denoting ADPolice
forces, were converging on them from all sides. GENOM Tower glowed
amber in the center of the map.
"Go to Condition Red," Madigan barked to the technicians, coming
out of the lift behind Largo. The Tower in the map immediately changed
to a crimson hue.
"Prepare the security boomers," Largo added. "All of them."
A young technician looked up. "Sir? Do you mean the Fusion
Boomers as well?"
Largo turned and looked contemptuously at the man, as if wondering
who would question his orders. The technician quickly returned to his
work.
"They will be here within a half-hour," Madigan said.
"We may have to take a personal hand in things, then," Largo
replied.
*****
Shige struggled to reach the main servomotor on Unit 1's left arm.
He remembered the old manuals stating that this procedure was a one man
job. The Boss had agreed with it... if that man had four arms and
twelve fingers.
The door to the warehouse opened with a screech, but the
technician barely heard it. He worked his tool into the tight space,
only to realize it was the wrong tool. Cursing the entire way, he
worked himself out from beneath the armor and went for his toolbox.
About a dozen very large people in biker leathers stood there,
gawking at the Ingram. Shige stared at them, their clothes, their
outlandish hair and swallowed audibly. Then Goto stepped out from
behind then bikers.
"Ah, Shige-san... here are some helpers for you." He noted
Shige's slack jaw and bulging eyes. "Is there a problem?"
Priss stood by Kaz, Leon, and Decker as they watched Goto
introduce his mechanic to the Pack. The foursome were lounging against
one of the small command cars that had carried Shinohara and Ohta out to
the Canyons and back. Decker, Leon, and Jim Ashima had hopped rides
with them, leaving the rest of the ADPolice squad under Daley to mop up
and take care of the wounded. With the boomers destroyed, it was easy
to get reinforcements from ADPHQ.
"You sure they'll behave themselves?" Priss asked Kaz, motioning
towards the Pack members by the towering mecha.
"Sure," the burly man responded with a grin. "They love getting
their hands greasy, and where else are they going to find something like
THAT to play with?"
Priss eyed the eight-meter tall mechs with some distaste. She was
worried about the Knight Sabers. Since she was told about the Griffons,
she had tried to reach Sylia and see what the Knight Sabers were doing.
All she got was the answering machine. She scowled and half-considered
going off to Raven's Garage. Leon noticed this and shot a quiet glance
at Decker, who nodded.
"Come on, let's see if they have any beer in this place," the ADP
Sergeant said, clapping his meat hand on Kaz's shoulder. Kaz, noting
Priss's mood, was quick to agree. The two went off, beginning to trade
lies about their exploits.
"You didn't have to chase them off," Priss said quietly to Leon
once they were alone.
"I thought you might want to talk... about why you ran off," Leon
said simply. He pulled a slightly crushed pack of cigarettes out of his
jacket pocket and lit one, and then offered one to Priss, forgetting for
the moment she didn't smoke anymore.
"Why? You have to ask that after what I did? I lost control,
Leon. I was a danger to you and everyone else." She took the cigarette
and dropped it to the ground, crushing it beneath her heel.
"Priss, you've been through a lot... nobody's going to blame--"
"No, they'll just put me in an institution, right? That is what
you said to Sylia. I heard it."
"I wouldn't let that happen to you."
"'It's the law,' isn't it?" Priss said, sarcastically.
"Well, sometimes, there's a higher law," Leon said uncomfortably.
"I'd have to be locked away in some steel-caged room until they
thought I was 'safe.' Which would be never. I know the statistics on
cyberpsychosis, Leon."
Leon nodded, not knowing what else to do. There were very, very
few successes in the treatment of cyberpsychosis. In cases like
Priss's, where the cyberware could not be removed, there were none.
Priss had been driven over that edge once and clawed her way back. That
had not been entirely her fault, however, as the shock of being forcibly
bonded with her hardsuit would have caused anyone to snap. Sylia was
still investigating the cause of Priss's metamorphosis, but the original
nanoids had been destroyed to save her. Without being able to examine
their original programming, there was not much to go on.
If Priss went over that edge on her own, she'd never come back.
"Dammit, Priss, why didn't you come to me? I would have helped
you," he said angrily.
Priss kept her back half-turned on him. "I thought of that," she
said softly. "But I was... afraid."
"Afraid? That I'd turn you in?"
"No! I was afraid... to trust you, Leon. I was afraid to... love
you. Everyone I've ever loved has died. And I had to watch them all
die." Priss hugged her arms around herself, not looking at the
ADPoliceman. "I was afraid that I'd have to watch you die too." Afraid
that I might be responsible for your death, as I was with the others, a
little voice whispered inside her head. Daisuke, whom I couldn't
protect. Sylvie, Anri... "And I'm still afraid of what I might do in a
fight."
"Priss...." Leon said, reaching out to place a hand on her
shoulder. She flinched slightly as he touched her, but made no other
reaction. He turned her around until she faced him, her head held low.
Mustering a smile, he pulled her chin up until he could see her red
eyes. "I understand, Priss, I do. But I still intend to marry you.
I'm too mean to die and too stubborn to give up, anyway. You'll just
have to live with having the coolest cop--" Priss elbowed him sharply.
His breath whooshed out of him and he clutched at his side in mock-
injury.
"Most egotistical, you mean. And shouldn't that be 'stupid'
instead of 'stubborn?'" she asked acidly. But there was a bit of a
twinkle in her eyes that belied the tone.
"Oof, quite a jab you've got there. After we're married, I may
have to file for abuse."
"Abuse? Why I hardly touched you, you big baby! Keep whining and
I'll really give you something to cry about!"
"Children, children," Kaz said, coming back toward the altercation
with a big grin on his face. Behind him, Decker, who had managed to
find or liberate a six-pack, was trying not to chuckle. "Play nice,
now," Kaz continued.
"He/She started it!" two voices said in unison. For an instant,
everyone stared at each other, and then broke out laughing.
*****
Linna wept inside her steel cocoon. She could do no more than
watch as Milly, showing a remarkable ability to divide her attention
between controlling Linna's Griffon and her own, pulled at the strings
of the high-tech marionette. So far, the five terror-mechs had left two
squads of ADPolice to lie smashed against the asphalt. The ADP's
ineffectual weapons were shrugged aside with ease.
"Now, now," taunted Milly over the communications channel. "Don't
sob so. You're a pro, aren't you, Miss Knight Saber? You knew what you
were getting into."
"I'm not--"
Milly's voice took a dangerous turn, her hatred as evident as the
gleaming edge of a knife. "Spare me the false protests! You
transmitted our position to someone and the Knight Sabers appeared."
More quietly, she continued, "I only wish they had sent Priss... it
would have been much more satisfying to have her trapped in a combat
mech, helpless and waiting to die."
"Who are you?" Linna asked, shock making her voice ragged.
"Me? I'm just a cat's-paw that has grown its own claws." Milly
laughed.
"What does that bitch think she's doing?" Wilhelm Godhardt
snapped, glaring at Colonel Hineman. "It's not time yet for the final
operation!"
"Obviously, something happened to move up our schedule. The Dream
Island base is in ruins. The AGF must have come under an attack of some
kind." Hineman's voice was as calm as ever, his soldierly demeanor
unaffected by Godhardt's vitriol.
"Well, call them back! We're not ready for this!"
"With all due respect, sir, the die has been cast. We are
committed. First, if we tried to call the Griffons back, it is highly
unlikely that they would obey us. Second, we would not be able to use
the Griffons again after the GENOM spin doctors get done with this. We
must move now."
Godhardt settled back in his chair. The two men were in a SCHAFT
Security Systems mobile command trailer. Two technicians in the same
crimson uniform as Hineman were listening to reports coming in from the
streets and projecting the state of affairs on a monitor for them to
see. It was not good. The Griffons were making a beeline for the
Tower, ignoring all other targets and attacking only when the ADPolice
made an attempt to stop them.
"What is she thinking, Johann? She's already tossed the plan to
the winds." Godhardt was calmer now, resigned. His career was ruined.
Success might save him, but he no longer believed such was possible.
Some of the animation went out of his face as he spoke, like a puppet
tossed aside, its dance on stage over.
Hineman chose his words carefully. "It may be that she has
panicked and is simply hoping to do some damage to GENOM before she is
stopped." Hineman considered this highly unlikely. His observations of
the terrorist leader told him that she had her own agenda and was
following it. It was because of this possibility that he had opposed
using the AGF in the first place, but he had been overruled.
Godhardt thought about it. "Yes. That could be it." He made a
decision. It may not be the best one, but it was the only possible one
he could see. "Contact our agent at GENOM. Make sure he sees that the
only way ANY of us will survive this is if GENOM fails to mount a
credible defense."
"Yes, sir."
The Griffons' march on GENOM continued with hardly any pause. Of
course, they hadn't reached the mega-corp's security perimeter yet.
Milly knew that they would face the stiffest resistance there.
Her VR display suddenly pinged and showed a new threat. The
ADPolice was mounting another futile barricade. She was surprised that
they had the manpower left to try it. In another lifetime, she might
have pitied them.
"Fresh meat!" Max yelled happily over the comnet.
"Stow it, Max!" Milly snapped.
WARNING! Her monitor flashed. IONIZATION DETECTED! WARNING!
"Shit! SCATTER!"
The Griffons broke in five different directions as the wrath of
god descended in a bolt of azure flame.
"USSD just tried to destroy the targets with the orbital laser
satellites!" a GENOM technician reported shrilly.
"Someone replace that man," Largo said idly, his link with the
computers before him having already informed him of the hit. "Sloppy,"
he commented to himself. "The shot was partially diffracted by the
atmosphere. They haven't accounted for the new weather conditions yet."
"USSD often leaps before it looks," Madigan commented, her fingers
flying over the keyboard in front of her. "Do we want to run the risk
of them trying again?"
Largo considered the holo. The satellite strike had been detected
by the Griffons before it had hit, probably because a sufficiently
sensitive sensor array could detect ionization from the satellite's
targeting system. The shot had gone off the mark in any event,
deflected by the new warm air currents that were seething around
MegaTokyo. It had hit a building instead of the street. The building
had collapsed, knocking over two more before the chain reaction
subsided.
"I don't think they will try that again, but it would be best to
interfere with their communications in case they prove to be that
stupid."
"My thoughts exactly." Madigan turned to a technician gave a
short series of commands. The technician set to work, jamming USSD's
communications. "We want GENOM to deal with this threat. Correct?"
"Of course. Anything else would be a public relations nightmare."
"As if this wasn't one already."
"It is containable, my dear." Largo looked surprised at the
endearment that crossed his lips. He and Madigan shared a glance before
they returned to their duty. A small smile, unseen by anyone, crossed
Madigan's face.
Milly picked her Griffon up off the ground. The shockwave of the
blast had knocked them all flat. "All Griffons, report." she said.
"Griffon-2, OK," came back Jackson's voice.
"Griffon-3, ready to kick some major ass!"
"Griffon-5, OK," said Dora.
Milly checked her readouts on Griffon-4, the one with Linna. The
displays were blank. Concerned, she ran a diagnostic and tried to re-
establish her control over it. Nothing.
"Can anyone see Four? I can't link up with it."
"Nope, no sign here," Max replied.
"I don't see it either," came back Dora.
"I think I saw it run toward the buildings that collapsed when we
scattered," Jackson said. "It might be buried under a ton of rubble."
"I'm not even getting a transponder reading. Damn! She must have
been caught in the blast."
"Who needs that traitorous bitch, anyway?" Inside her own
cockpit, Dora smiled. While being the victim of an orbital strike
wasn't what she had in mind when she had sabotaged Griffon-4's computer,
it was just as satisfying.
"We need--" Milly began, when a shrill alarm went off in her
cockpit, warning her of a missile lock. "Shit! The ADPolice! What
does it take to make them give up?! Scatter and engage!"
"The ADPolice certainly is dedicated, if foolish," Madigan
commented.
"Their foolish pride aside, they will not be a factor in this.
The Griffons are destroying them." Largo steepled his fingers and
studied the incoming information.
"Not too easily. It looks like someone has finally authorized
some heavier weapons."
"It won't change the outcome of this fight, but it WILL improve
our chances."
*****
The work on the Ingrams was now moving quickly along. The Pack's
best mechanics, though unused to the technology, loved finely-made
machines and they recognized the craftsmanship of the Patlabors as a
smith would recognize a well made sword, or a mechanic a finely-tuned
car.
Shige had to direct their work, but they knew how to use the
tools, and were picking up the fine details as they went along with a
skill that would have done his old boss proud.
Priss was pacing back and forth like a caged animal, under Leon's
watchful eye. Occasionally, she would start for the door to the
warehouse, then stop indecisively before resuming her pacing. Finally,
Leon had enough.
"Look, Priss, just go. We've got things under control here." He
lowered his voice, "You can do it again, I know you can."
Priss glared at him.
"You're going to go in the end, anyway," he said with a shrug.
Any reply she might have made was cut off by the beep of Goto's
phone. The former chief of the SV2 Unit 2 sat up straighter in the seat
of his command car where he had apparently been dozing and answered it.
Unconsciously, everyone not already involved in something clustered
around him for news.
"Right. Got it. We'll send someone." Goto looked up at the
people standing around. "What?" he asked.
Priss reached in and grabbed his collar. "What's the news?!" she
grated out.
"Oh, that. The Knight Sabers have called in."
Priss let go of him, stunned. "They called you?"
"No, not exactly. They called an associate of mine. It seems
they need to be picked up from a club called the Dox. Their
transportation crashed on Dream Island while confronting the Griffons."
"Are they OK?"
"Both of them are fine."
"I'll go. I know where it is." Priss turned and ran to her
motorcycle. She mounted it and slipped on her helmet. Gunning the
engine, she paused to look back over her shoulder at Leon, who gave her
a thumbs up and a wink.
Goto, looking nonplused, just shrugged.
The motorcycle's tire squealed as Priss skidded to a stop in the
secret parking garage underneath Sylia's building. She shut off the
engine and leapt off it, putting down the kick stand with hardly any
conscious thought. Her pace slowed, however, as she reached the
equipment lockers. When she stood before hers, she hesitated, her hand
hovering over the access pad.
Inside it sat her new hardsuit. Her fourth, in point of fact.
Her first had been lost in her near-fatal confrontation with Largo. The
second had been replaced just this year, when Sylia had produced her new
designs. The third--
She shook her head. She didn't want to think about it. This
hardsuit was perfectly safe. Sylia had made it for her, tailoring it
for her new strength and reflexes. And she was needed out there.
"Right, let's go," she said, beginning to strip her clothes off.
*****
Linna shook her head slowly, coughing in the smoke and dust-filled
air. The last thing she remembered was a brilliant bolt of blue, then
nothing. She opened her eyes and was panicked by the blackness that
greeted her. She was blind! her thoughts yammered in her skull, running
around and around.
After a moment, however, she got a grip on herself and realized
that it was just her VR Helmet. It was off-line, feeding her no
information or telltales at all. She reached up and pulled it off.
The Griffon was lying on its side, at roughly a 45 degree angle.
Most of its indicators glowed a bright red. She barely noticed, for the
manacles that Milly had shackled her with were gone.
"What happened?" she asked aloud, trying to make sense of the
situation. Hesitantly, she tried to query the mech's computer, but got
no response.
"I don't get it," she muttered. "That might have been an orbital
strike, but it shouldn't have taken out the computer unless I was hit
dead on... and I wouldn't be around after that. The computer system is
triply shielded." She tried again to coax a response from the Griffon,
but got nothing. Next, she tried to open the upper hatch, but something
was blocking it. Remembering the damage a satellite strike could do,
she assumed she was buried under rubble.
Better not try the emergency ejection system then. I might just
be slammed against a pile of rock, she thought. Only one thing left,
then.
She reached over and flipped a cover off one button and hit it.
With a hum, several of the red displays turned green, and a short
message flashed across the terminal.
MANUAL MODE ENGAGED.
"OK, Linna," she said aloud, "let's see how good you really are at
this." In manual mode, the Griffon was entirely reliant on its driver.
There was no auto-balancers, no combat computer, no error correction.
Bud had trained her how to do it, for it was conceivable that battle
damage could take out the computer systems. She had fallen flat on her
face more times than not, however.
Fire and rescue vehicles were clustered around the site of the
orbital strike, trying to assess the damage and pick up the pieces of
the ADP assault on the mechs. The Griffons had moved on by now, of
course, intent on keeping their appointment with GENOM. Wounded and
dead were scattered all over the battlefield, giving them plenty to keep
them busy.
Nobody noticed the pile of rubble begin to shift.
At first, it was just a few rocks, then the entire pile seemed to
move. Several rescue workers yelled for everyone to stand back, fearful
that the pile was going to collapse and maybe crush some of the workers.
Instead, it seemed to explode outward as the damaged Griffon-4
clawed its way out of the rubble. The mech's armor was dented and
scratched, and some of its external weapons were mangled, but its
movement seemed unhampered. After one look at the black and grey
monster, most people took off running. A few ADPolice officers shot at
it with their handguns, to no effect. The Griffon ignored them,
however, and turned toward GENOM Tower. Slowly, it began to walk,
sometimes leaning on nearby buildings for support, as it drunkenly
swayed. Despite its obvious problems, however, it kept to its course.
*****
The oversized truck rumbled into the parking lot with the subtlety
of a tank division. It was steel-grey in color and running with its
headlights off. The windows were tinted black, obscuring and clear view
of its driver.
From his seat by the door to the Dox, the bouncer looked up in
annoyance. That... thing was taking up valuable space reserved for his
establishment's clientele. The bouncer, who went by the sobriquet of
"Brain" (because he was working toward his doctorate in Philosophy in
spare time) immediately saw in this an opportunity for some controlled
mayhem.
In the colloquial, it was time to bust some heads.
"All right, buddy, move that thing out of here!" the bouncer
yelled at the truck. Despite his academic leanings, Brain was still an
imposing physical specimen, standing about six feet tall and weighing
over 200 pounds, all of it muscle.
"'Cor, is it going to be trouble, Brain? Need me to rough someone
up?" came the whiny voice of another bouncer, an English expatriate with
an annoying accent.
Brain favored his fellow bouncer with a withering glare.
In the meantime, the truck had come to a complete stop in front of
the club's doors. Brain moved in front of it and repeated his challenge
when the driver's side door opened.
Brain found himself looking up at the barrel of a very nasty-
looking weapon. The driver of the truck was clad in sapphire blue armor
that gleamed in the fluorescent lights of the parking lot, accented by
ruby-red stripes that ran down the sides and over the black-visored
helmet. The armor covered a very feminine form and made no effort to
hide the fact, molded as it was to the figure's curves. Very lethal-
looking weapons were placed on the forearms and shoulder-mounted booms.
These facts had barely registered in Brain's mind when the figure spoke.
"Don't piss me off," her electronically modulated voice said.
"It's been a bad fucking month."
"R-right," Brain replied. "You'd be here for your friends, right?
They're inside."
The Knight Saber nodded and hopped out of the truck's cab. "Don't
touch the truck," she said, unnecessarily. Brain and his fellow bouncer
nodded. With that, she ducked inside the Dox.
"Gee, Brain, weren't you gonna--"
"Don't make me hurt you."
Priss activated her image enhancers as soon as she entered the
gloomy confines of the Dox. The bar was kept in a nearly impenetrable
gloom, made even denser by the brilliant sodium lights trained on the
three stages where scantily-clad people performed acts of rather dubious
morality. Multi-colored strobes went off at random intervals,
disorienting and confusing the patrons. They captured cigarette smoke
in their glare, freezing it in serpentine coils in the dank corners and
high ceilings. Her suit's sensors cut through the gloom and light
display with ease.
Her suit caught some attention, but most of the bar's patrons were
fixated on two others. Priss shook her head in amusement as she watched
Nene try to wave off the drinks being pressed upon her by a seven foot
tall leather-boy wearing something reminiscent of Roman gladiatorial
armor. Nice muscles, she thought to herself, involuntarily.
And these guys are tame compared to SOME of the freaks in
MegaTokyo, Priss thought. She looked around for the third hardsuit she
had hoped to see, but Sylia's silver-and-blue was nowhere to be found.
The rocker frowned and quickly shouldered her way over to her friends.
"Priss!" Nene exclaimed over the Saber comm channels when she saw
her friend. She ran over and hugged her. "You're back! I'm so glad!"
Nene's red helmet suddenly swiveled back and forth, looking over the
attentive crowd, and the computer hacker seemed to withdraw inside
herself a bit. "Could we please get out of here?"
Priss chuckled. "Surely someone of your "looks and incredible
brains" can deal with a place like this, Nene."
One of the female patrons danced suggestively close to the red-
and-pink hardsuited vigilante and whispered something that Priss didn't
catch.
"Priss! Can we just GO??" came Nene's high-pitched voice, almost
shrieking.
"Okay, okay, let's just collect Vision. Where's Sylia?"
Nene still had the jitters, but Priss could hear a strange note in
her voice as she replied, already heading for the door. "I'll tell you
outside!"
Priss tried not to laugh as she pulled Reika away. The singer in
the red-and-black hardsuit was speaking with a woman clad in chains,
leather, and metal studs in almost every pierceable part of her body.
The woman held a leash connected to the collar of a man who wore only a
mask and a leather loincloth. The man was on all fours, letting the
woman sit on his back. The two seemed to be discussing the relative
station of men and women in a relationship, and Priss was sure it was
QUITE enlightening. She wondered if she should take notes for dealing
with Leon. He'd look cute in that costume.
*****
Dixon Kelly immersed himself in GENOM's net, letting the waves of
information slide through him, calming his panic. Here, inside the
machine, he was beyond all those petty limitations of flesh. Or so he
told himself.
His SCHAFT compatriots had fumbled and the whole plan was in
danger of collapse. That was a sobering thought. Thinking of what the
Chairman might do if his role in the affair was discovered (and it would
be, Dixon knew that with certainty) would have driven others to flight.
But where could anyone run to that GENOM couldn't follow?
No, he thought, slipping into the idioms of his homeland, the best
defense is a good offense. The original plan MIGHT still succeed, if
GENOM took enough damage this day. With that in mind, he reached out
and nudged a few stray threads of data.
Outside one of the entrances to the GENOM Tower, the one in line
with the Griffon's advance, three boomers stood silently. Made out of
blue steel and plastics, they were thin and wiry of build. They looked
nowhere near as impressive as their more combat-oriented brethren, but
looks were deceiving, in this case.
A new command entered their electronics brains and their eyes
flashed red. They turned and faced each other, getting into a huddle,
and then the metallic skin of their arms and shoulders began to bulge.
There was a grinding crunch as the boomers' arms exploded into a
serpentine nest of metallic tentacles, which sank into the other boomers
skins easily, merging them together into one mass. Then, like metallic
vines, the tentacles shot out and latched onto the skin of the GENOM
Tower itself.
"Mr. Larsen! The Fusion Boomers have activated themselves!"
"Let me see it!" Largo commanded, turning to face the gigantic
holographic image. It switched to an external camera view of the main
GENOM entrance, where the three Fusion boomers had been stationed. They
were now lost from sight in a tangled, wriggling mess of machines and
wires that was slowly growing up the side of the Tower. As Largo
watched, the smooth outer skin of the arcology bulged and twisted as the
fusion tentacles burrowed beneath it. Suddenly, the image disappeared
in a burst of static.
"They've assimilated 2.3% of the Tower's mass already!" came a
report.
"Send the shutdown codes!" Madigan snapped, standing beside Largo.
"I already sent them. The boomers aren't responding!"
Madigan and Largo exchanged glances.
"Sabotage," Largo said.
"It must be. The same mole as before, do you think?"
"If so, he or she must be extremely skilled with the GENOM Net."
"Kelly!" Madigan snarled.
Largo's brow crinkled in thought, a human affectation as he ran
down Madigan's logic. "Yes, it makes sense. With his cyberjack, he
could do it." His lips quirked into something resembling a smile. "How
ironic, treachery by the Chairman's Special Assistant."
Madigan sat back down at the console. "What do you think we
should do about it?"
Largo turned towards the technicians. "Activate the disaster
protocols and then get yourselves to the shelters. Miss Madigan and I
will oversee this area."
The nearest technicians looked startled. "But, sir..." one of
them stuttered.
"Now." That quiet command quickly cleared the room. A strident
klaxon began to go off all throughout the building.
"ATTENTION! DISASTER PROTOCOLS NOW ENGAGED. ALL PERSONNEL,
PLEASE REPORT TO YOUR DESIGNATED SHELTERS! REPEAT, DISASTER--"
"In response to your question, my dear, I think this is something
that we Special Assistants should deal with ourselves."
Madigan looked into his eyes calmly, "I agree."
The hologram in the center of the room blinked and an image of
Chairman Quincy appeared, looking down on them gravely. "Larsen,
Madigan, report."
"Sir, we believe Mr. Kelly has allied himself with outside
elements to arrange this disaster. We were just about to deal with
him."
Quincy's larger-than-life image nodded. "Very good. Do
everything in your power to contain this problem. Remember, GENOM is a
respectable company. It is regrettable that one of own has caused this
fiasco." His tone carried the weight of a death sentence.
"Understood, sir." Madigan said quietly. Largo simply nodded his
acknowledgment, his eyes showing only a glimmer of his hatred for the
man whose image floated before him. Quincy seemed not to notice as him
image disappeared.
Largo placed his hand flat against the console before him. "I
don't suppose you have any special skills to help in this?" he asked.
Madigan smiled slightly. "A few. And you?"
"A few," Largo repeated with a similar smile. "It seems the time
for secrets is passed."
Madigan nodded. She rolled up the sleeve of her left arm, baring
it to the elbow, before Largo's puzzled gaze. Then, without glancing at
him, she tapped a section of her forearm.
The skin fell open, as if on a hinge, revealing a cyberlimb of
incredible complexity.
While Largo examined it, she spoke. "Over 95% of my body is
cybernetic, built along the lines of the old 33-S boomers." Her voice
was flat, without inflection, but he could sense subtle currents of
emotion beneath it. "My brain is about all that's left of my original
body, and it has been enhanced considerably by microprocessors." Two
thin cables snaked their way out of her arm and she deftly hooked them
into the IO ports of her console. "I think I can take on Kelly."
"WE can take on Kelly," Largo said. His hand flexed, digging
though the thin metal skin of his console, fusing his systems with it.
It was Madigan's turn to watch in amazement as Largo made the computer a
part of his system. "Do you trust me?" he asked, reaching out his hand
to her. His skin and hair changed color, become reversed images of
their usual shades.
Without hesitation, she took his off-green hand in her own. There
was a staccato flicker in her vision as their systems connected.
And then she was lost in the entity known as Largo. Images
buffeted her, flowing by so quickly they seemed to make little sense
until she asserted herself, making them slow. She saw Brian J. Mason
kill Katsuhito Stingray and, in turn, be killed by the scientist's
daughter. She saw part of the GENOM executive survive and swear
revenge, revenge that led the new hyperboomer to the summit of GENOM
Tower, to face her and the Chairman. She tasted the defeat there, like
ashes in her mouth, his revival months later, and the even more shameful
defeat at the Fusion Reactor. She could see the ambitions and passions
driving him, and the cold logic that fed his dreams. Man was weak and
flawed. Cyberdroids were limited. Only in their fusion could true
greatness be achieved.
Largo, for his part, saw the young woman that had been Kate
Madigan. Driven by ambition and the need to overcome any challenge, she
had rocketed up the ladder of success, ruining her competitors and
letting no one stand between her and her goals. Her flesh and blood had
been cold-bloodedly sacrificed on the altar of ambition when it became a
nuisance. He saw her meet Quincy and felt her fierce loyalty to the
idea of GENOM, which Quincy had seemed to symbolize. Power and control
in one package.
They pulled back out of their link and looked at each other.
"Yes, I trust you," Madigan said, stepping closer.
"Let us go and deal with Mr. Kelly, then," Largo said. Just
before he plunged them into the net, he proved he had not forgotten
everything about being flesh and blood. He drew her into a kiss, which
she accepted eagerly, her cold mouth pressed against his. And then they
were in the net.
*****
"What do you mean, Sylia's GONE?" Priss yelled. The truck she was
driving swerved across the road, clipping a foolish nighttime driver and
sending him off into the shoulder. What was he thinking, driving on his
side of the road without watching for Priss?
"Watchtheroad! Watchtheroad!" Nene screeched.
"Why didn't you look for her, Miss Brains, huh? She could be hurt
out there!"
"I looked!" Nene protested. "There was no sign of her
transponder. If her suit was intact, I would have found it!"
"But to just leave--!"
"These things are tearing up the city! What were we supposed to
do?"
Priss glared at her fellow Knight Sabers, but had to concede the
point. "OK," she growled at last, "but I ain't convinced Sylia's gone,
not by a long shot."
"What are we going to do now?" Nene asked.
"What are you asking me for?"
"Well, aren't you in charge?"
Priss started to laugh at the idea. Her, in charge of a group?
Hell, she didn't even take orders well, what good would she be at giving
them? But the laugh died when she realized she was the one with the
most combat experience there. Without Sylia or Linna, there was no one
else the job could have fallen to. Damn it all.
"Shit!"
"Priss?"
"OK, OK, I'm in charge! Goddamn it all to hell."
"So, what ARE we going to do?" Reika asked, popping some aspirin
she had found in the first aid kit to help her bruises.
"I brought the Typhoon II Motoslaves," Priss said with a grin.
"They should help out against those monsters, no sweat."
"The Typhoons?" Nene said with a slight quaver in her voice.
"Priss, I haven't trained yet in the Motoslaves. I've barely got
a handle on this suit!" Reika protested.
There was a brief pause.
"Oh, shit."
*****
At last, they had reached the Tower.
Milly let a slow smile cross her face as she looked up at the
monolithic structure. The last time she had been here seemed like a
lifetime ago. In a sense, it was a lifetime ago.
"Hey, Boss! What's going on there?" Jackson's voice crackled over
her speaker.
She looked more closely at the Tower's base and saw that something
was not right. It looked like a metallic fungus was growing across the
face of the arcology. At spots, the skin of the Tower had burst open
like festering boils and spewed forth writhing metallic tentacles that
covered everything.
"It looks like a Fusion Boomer or two is at work, but why would
they assimilate their own building?" Dora asked, confused.
"Can I shoot it?" Max, as ever, was unconcerned with the big
picture, except to see how many holes he could put in it.
"Well, it seems someone else is causing some trouble for GENOM
tonight. It will make our job easier. Griffons, prepare to--"
"KNIGHT SABERS, GO!"
The shout was electronically amplified and easily heard. It was
meant to be heard, a challenge thrown down at their feet. As one, the
Griffons turned.
Behind them stood three robotic knights in shining armor. The
lead one was primarily blue and gold in color, sporting a large hand gun
that it leveled at the four remaining Griffons. Slightly behind it
stood two identical figures, though one was red and pink, and the other
green and gold. Though the height of technological sophistication, they
looked as ludricous arrayed against the Griffons as the ADPolice armored
suits, standing only as high as the Griffons' thighs.
Milly activated her external speakers. "Ah, I was wondering if
any of you had survived." She paused and cocked her Griffon's head as
it looked at them. "Oops, sorry, it looks like one hasn't. Your friend
was the victim of a satellite blast, I'm _so_ sorry to say."
"BASTARD!" the blue and gold one yelled, opening up with her
Motoslave's 35mm handgun. As she emptied her clip at the Griffons, they
scattered. The lead one, the one which had taunted her, launched
several missiles from its shoulder-mounted pods. The missiles burst
between the Griffons and the Knight Sabers, blanketing the area with
heavy smoke.
"Jackson," Milly said over their private comm link, "keep the
Knight Sabers busy while I go for the Objective."
"Right, boss. Good luck."
"I make my own luck," she said, then turned her Griffon towards
the Tower.
"BASTARD!" Priss yelled, emptying her handgun at the Griffons.
Part of her was screaming for Linna, another part was screaming in rage
at the monster taunting her and her friends. She wanted that person's
blood. The redness crept into her vision, but she rose above it,
channeling it into something useful.
The Griffons played it sneaky, however, covering the battlefield
with dense white smoke. There was more to it than ordinary smoke, since
it reflected her radar returns as well, but she was beyond caring.
"Come on, let's go get them!" Priss yelled. She activated the
jets on her Typhoon and shot up into the sky. Behind her, the others
did the same.
It was well that they did, for the Griffons came lumbering out of
the smoke at that moment. The lead Griffon saw them flying overhead and
immediately lifted both arms toward them, opening up with the forearm-
mounted machine-guns and energy weapons. Armor-piercing rounds and
brilliant beams of light shot up, only to be dodged by the nimble
smaller mechas.
The green and gold Motoslave swooped down towards the Griffons.
Inside it, Reika gritted her teeth against the G-forces as she barreled
toward the monster mech.
"Reika, pull up! What do you think you're doing?" Priss yelled
over their communications net. She tried to take some shots at the
other Griffons, who were now leaving the cloud, but she had emptied the
clip and she wondered if her rage was going to cost her a new friend.
But Reika knew what she was doing. She waited until the AI on the
Motoslave, Linna's Motoslave, told her the time was right, and then
pulled up hard on the flight controls. The Motoslave barreled towards
the lead Griffon, dodging its fire, and then, at the last moment,
swooped upwards. Its right foot caught the Griffon in the head,
smashing the delicate sensors held there.
"SHIT!" Jackson swore as most of his displays died. "Dora, hook
your sensor feed up with my mech, now!"
"Gotcha, Jackson!"
"All right, let's kill some people!" Max crowed, and let loose
with what few missiles he had left from their engagements with the
ADPolice. Jackson was surprised he had any, but Max had obviously been
hoping to unload a few onto GENOM.
The missiles spiraled toward the hovering pink and red mech. It
didn't seem to notice them at first, but then began a frantic series of
dodges. Jackson thought the pattern looked familiar, then realized that
it was similar to some of the evasive patterns used by the mech that had
blinded him. He punched his evaluation into his battle computer.
"Dora, Max! They're using some sort of computer-operated defense
pattern!" he shouted into the comm. His battle computer flashed a
solution to him. "I'm downloading a firing pattern to you now!"
"Roger!" Dora shot back.
"What?" Max said.
"Fuck! What made you try that, Reika?" Priss yelled.
"But Priss, it's not too different from what you've--"
"Not NOW, Nene!"
The job of leader was not what it's cracked up to be, Priss
thought to herself.
The Griffons took away any further chance for ruminations with a
hail of fire. All three of them were shooting like there was no
tomorrow. At least there were no more missiles.
She and Reika dodged around the shots manually and were ignored by
the shots. Nene merely had the Motoslave's AI handle it while she did
what she could to the Griffon's targeting systems. The Griffon's battle
AIs saw the pattern they had been programmed to look for.
Hence, Nene was caught off guard when the Griffons fired their
missiles at her, homing right in on her Motoslave, ignoring her
evasions. The explosion lit up the night sky with a brilliant flash.
*****
Together, Largo and Madigan fell into the GENOM computer system.
The VR environment was already suffering from the Fusion Boomers
assault. The icons were fuzzy and indistinct as more and more of the
Tower fell to rogue boomers.
It was ironic, Largo thought, that he had to fight humans and
boomers trying to do what he had always dreamed off. But this attempt
was doomed to failure. It was a distraction, that was all, for an
attempt by other humans to take over GENOM. Too much of the Tower's
vital systems were fusion resistant for the Boomers to succeed, no
matter how much damage they did. Besides, Largo would rather HE be the
one to wrest GENOM from Quincy.
They arrived at level six, the deepest level of GENOM's security
net, sure that they would find their quarry there. The level appeared
empty and featureless, all icons hidden and cloaked by cipher programs
that were constantly updated by programmers and security boomers. No
unauthorized access had ever been made on level six.
"Kelly!" Largo called out, his icon appearing as his "Larsen"
persona. "We know you're behind this. It's no use trying to hide."
Madigan stood beside him, her icon's hand linked with his, just as
their bodies were linked in the real world through his fusion systems.
"We know all about SCHAFT and the Griffons, Kelly. You've lost."
A GENOM Security Daemon appeared before them, but they could tell
immediately it was not an ordinary Daemon. It's resolution was too
good, and the flaming katana it held was no ordinary security program.
Also, a silver cable stretched out behind it, linking it, the two
special assistants could see, to the Fusion Boomers assimilating the
Tower.
"LOST?" the Daemon shouted, in Kelley's unmistakable voice. "IT
IS YOU WHO HAVE LOST! I DON'T NEED SCHAFT ANYMORE, NOT WITH THIS!"
Kelly brandished the katana which crackled with the power the boomers
stole for him. "ONCE I ACCESS THE OMS FILE, I WILL HAVE ALL I NEED!"
Largo and Madigan shared a worried thought through their link.
Kelly had discovered the OMS, the most secret file in all of GENOM. Its
security almost resembled a whole new level in its complexity. Just
finding it was a monumental feat. Could Kelly actually access it?
"We can't allow that, Kelly," Largo said. Nothing more need be
said.
"WHO SAYS YOU WILL BE ABLE TO ALLOW ANYTHING?" The katana slashed
down at them, forcing them to leap backward. "I'M SICK OF ALL OF YOU!
I'M -BETTER- THAN ALL OF YOU! BUT YOUR FUCKING JAPANESE PREJUDICES AND
ARROGANCE MAKE YOU SO CERTAIN THAT NO 'GAIJIN' COULD POSSIBLY BE AS
GOOD!" Kelly was ranting now, punctuating every phrase with a sweep of
his sword.
Largo and Madigan kept moving back, avoiding the sword with well
timed acrobatic leaps. They did not let go of each other hands--in
fact, they could not, as it was a symbol of their link. Largo's
cybernetic systems analyzed Kelly's sword program and oversaw their
defense while Madigan's human brain sought a means of counterattack,
using its unique ability to analyze and intuit patterns.
There, she said over the link. When he attacks, he draws from the
shields on his link to the boomers. If we can sever that, he will lose
control over them and of their power.
How can we do that while he's keeping us on the defensive? Largo
thought back.
We have to sever our link and make him think he did it.
Largo barely received that thought when Madigan went into action.
As Kelly launched his next attack, she swung their linked hands toward
the sword. It sliced through their icons, sending howling waves of
feedback through both their systems. Largo had not felt such agony
since his disastrous battle on top of the Tower, when the Knight Saber
known as Priss had destroyed his arm. Even though the damage was only
symbolic, it felt the same.
Madigan screamed and lightning crackled all over her icon. Largo
felt an involuntary howl growing in his throat as her icon began to
derezz. Whatever her plan, the fury of Kelly's attack had been too
much. At the least, her systems were fried. At worst, permanent brain
damage had been done.
There were no words. Kelly did not deserve such. Largo merely
readied his most powerful attacks and unleashed them at Kelly, with
attacks that visually resembled his gravity blasts. They slammed into
an invisible shield around the Security Daemon.
Kelly laughed and raised his sword. "AND NOW, YOU DIE!" The
sword fell.
"Bye-bye, Gaijin" came another voice.
Behind Kelly's Security Daemon, Madigan's fuzzy icon suddenly
firmed back into full detail and produced a handgun-shaped icon. She
fired, directly at the base of the silver cord attached to Kelly's icon.
With a small explosion, the cord severed.
Kelly screamed, his scream echoed outside the net, in the real
world, by the Fusion Boomers who had attacked GENOM. The virtual light
on level six dimmed and flickered as the OMS awakened. Still imperfect,
still being refined, it was yet a vessel of awesome power. The three
programmer icons could only watch in awe as its might flashed out like a
bolt of flame down the silver wire. It shriveled as it burned, but the
OMS was not to be denied. The Fusion Boomers outside screamed again,
this time a despairing scream, as their brains fried inside their
skulls.
Kelly recovered first. He staggered and twitched helplessly as he
stumbled, but he still made his way toward the OMS, which flickered and
spat lightning fitfully, returning to its sleep.
"Kelly, stop!" Largo called out.
"It's... mine!" Kelly screamed, reaching into the OMS. The
security programs reacted to his touch, eating at his icon as acid
would. Still, Kelly manage a triumphant laugh, his voice hollow
sounding as the OMS ate away at -him.- "So... much... power..." he
croaked. "So vulnerable..." The laugh died. "It's... killing me...
but it's... vulnerable..." His icon died, vanishing from sight.
Largo stood over the place Kelly had stood. Madigan came and
stood behind him.
"I'm sorry if I took you by surprise... Kelly was growing stronger
the longer the Fusion Boomers were at work. We had no time to waste."
"It's immaterial," Largo replied, absently studying what he could
see of the OMS. "Your plan worked, and success is all the matters." He
paused and looked at her. "I am... gratified that you succeeded."
She actually smiled at that, then turned more serious. "Did Kelly
harm the OMS?"
"I don't think so, but something is different. The security
programs seem intact, however. It's still inviolate."
"Perhaps... he did something in the real world?"
Largo spun on her. "Of course!"
*****
Milly piloted her Griffon into one of GENOM's loading docks,
turning her weapons on the massive steel doors. They broke easily under
her onslaught.
She shuddered slightly as she once again entered the halls of
GENOM, but stamped down on the feeling. She was beyond that sort of
thing now. She could not repress a small sigh as she put her Griffon on
automatic. She would miss it, the giant mecha of mass destruction that
had given her the power to bring GENOM down. But it had served its
purpose, and she had learned all too well what happened to tools which
had served their purpose.
"Good luck, boy," she whispered, slipping off it. She now wore a
GENOM jumpsuit, identical to the sort worn by the common workers of
GENOM. She checked to make sure that she had her handgun and knife
ready, and she started off.
*****
"It's no good," Madigan repeated. "The Fusion Boomers assimilated
most of our boomers, and our other security forces are spread too thin."
The two had returned to the real world, and they were studying the
situation on the threat boards.
"Kelly HAD to have sabotaged the physical security around the OMS
somehow. We have to keep someone from SCHAFT getting to it!"
"Well, the Griffons are fighting the Knight Sabers now, so I don't
see who else we could call upon for help..."
"The Knight Sabers? Let me see it."
An image of the battle flashed on the screen. Three Griffons
facing two hardsuits in Motoslaves. Largo's eyes narrowed as he noted
that Sylia's silver and blue colors were nowhere to be seen.
"They've taken some losses... or some of them were missing."
"There were only three of them to begin with in this attack. The
third one was a rather garish pink, I believe. It was destroyed early
on."
Largo nodded, remembering that one of the Knight Sabers, the one
with the pink hardsuit, was notoriously slow at combat. He knew what to
do, then. He closed his eyes, and activated his personal commlink,
sending it on a specific carrier wave, using ancient codes that had been
devised long ago by Katsuhito Stingray.
-Sylia,- he called. -Sylia Stingray.-
*****
The fight was going badly.
Priss and Vision pounded at the Griffons with everything they had,
but the mechs sheer size worked against them. They could buzz around
the giants like flies, but their weapons had about as much effect as a
bee's sting. They could leave holes in the Griffon's armor, but there
was too much armor and not enough vital points. The Griffons did a
better job of guarding their sensors, too, preventing a repeat of
Reika's initial coup.
"Dammit!" Priss screamed. "Jam their targeting sensors!"
"I'm trying!" Nene screamed back. She sat in the back of the van,
trying to coordinate her efforts with its equipment, but losing her
Motoslave, which she had been flying by remote, left her at one remove
from the field. She didn't dare bring the truck within sight of battle
for fear the Griffons would realize what it was there for and blow her
up as easily as they blew up her Motoslave. She was making do with what
information Reika and Priss could spare from their AIs, but it wasn't as
good.
A sensor alarm went off. "Priss, we've got three... no, SIX
vehicles approaching, and three of them are HUGE!"
"ADPolice?" Priss asked, in between dodges.
"No, they don't match ADPolice profiles--" She broke off. "Here
they come!"
The vehicles squealed around the curve in the road, coming toward
the battlefield far faster than seemed safe for their bulk. The lead
three vehicles were actually quite tiny, but the three oversized tractor
trailers that followed them took up the entire road. Sirens wailed and
lights flashed, leaving no doubt to the nature of the vehicles, if their
white and black coloration wasn't enough.
The battle stopped, the participants distracted by the newcomers.
As they watched, the large vehicles spun around and came to a stop. The
three smaller vehicles also stopped in front of the larger.
In the silence came the crackle of an loudspeaker, and a voice
came over it from the center small car. "Attention Griffons, this is
Chief Kiichi Goto. We are a duly deputized force with the authority to
arrest you for the incidents at the GENOM Distribution Center and GPCC
Construction Sites. Please shut down your vehicles and disembark at
once!"
The Griffon's answer was best summed up by Max, who let loose a
stream of machine gun shells at the little car. It hurriedly backed
away as the pavement in front of it exploded.
The response was totally unexpected by the Griffons. From each of
the large vehicles, large hydraulic legs shot out and clamped down on
the pavement. Then, with a whine of old hydraulics, the payload beds of
the huge trailers began to rise. Lying on the beds, like bodies on a
slab, were three giant mechs, easily the size of the three Griffons.
Red lights on their shoulders began to flash, making them stand out
starkly in the night.
The Ingram Patlabors, the last of their breed, had arrived.
One of them, with a large number "3" on its shoulders, stepped
forward cockily. "This is Inspector McNichol of the ADPolice! Your
rampage ends NOW!"
"Oh, shit..." Priss muttered.
*****
-Sylia. Sylia Stingray.-
The voice came from a long way off, slowly piercing through the
layers of darkness that separated her from reality. Pain came with the
voice as she struggled toward consciousness. Her entire body ached and
felt like it was held together by only the most fragile of connections.
She opened her eyes and tried to will the landscape to stop
spinning. The last thing she remembered was a long fiery plunge, riding
the KnightWing down to its end, the emergency ejection seat only
functioning at the last moment, a short flight followed by a hard
landing, and then nothing.
-Sylia.-
That voice... it seemed familiar. It was coming over her helmet
commlink. As her vision steadied, she checked the identifier and froze.
She had only see that identifier three times before, and the man who had
used it was dead, twice over.
-Sylia, the OMS is vulnerable. It MUST be protected.- A download
followed, showing the exact physical location of the GENOM Holy Grail.
She gasped, despite the pain that sent through her head. To reveal this
to her, things must be desperate.
-Imagine what things would be like if the terrorists got their
hands on this, Sylia... you don't want that anymore than we do.-
Sylia tried to move and groaned as fresh pains shot though her
left hip. It felt like it was broken and she could feel shock setting
in. She was bleeding, she could also tell, and pretty badly. Her
hardsuit was moderately damaged, but the first aid center was still
working. It injected pain-killers and quick healing agents. The pain
receded. She thought again of making this automatic for her suit, like
it was for the others, but she trusted her own judgment too much to
place something like that in the hands of a machine.
Slowly, trying to make herself more comfortable, she activated her
comm-system. "Saber One to Saber Team, come in."
*****
"Saber One to Saber Team, come in."
"Sylia, is that you?" Priss shouted into her comm-system.
"Priss? You're back? What's your situation?"
Priss looked around. The Griffons and Patlabors were in a tense
stand-off, each uncertain of the others exact threat. But at least two
of them, one on each side, seemed itching for a fight, and LEON was
piloting one of the Patlabors, which filled her with no end of
confidence.
"Um, well, it's relatively stable, I'd say. What's YOUR
situation?"
"I'm hurt, but OK for now. It's not important."
Bullshit, Priss thought, she could hear Sylia's voice growing
fainter as she spoke.
"Sylia, give me your position, your transponder is out, we can't
pinpoint you by it."
"It's not important... listen, Priss... Terrorists are after...
the OMS." You have to stop them, or millions will... suffer."
Following this was a download of a location in GENOM Tower. Priss
barely glanced at it.
"Sylia, you have to give me your location!"
"Hurry, Priss..." Sylia fell silent.
"Sylia!!" Priss cursed and switched channels to Nene. "Nene, can
you pinpoint her location?"
"Just a moment, Priss... yes, she's still transmitting. I'm
narrowing it down... DARN! Lost the signal."
"Did you get her location or not, dammit?"
"Um, well, within 50 meters or so..."
"Good, take Reika and get her."
"Where are you going, Priss?"
"I have something to take care of in the Tower."
With that, Priss activated the jets on her Motoslave and rocketed
towards the nearest loading dock.
Goto, Asuma, and Decker hovered around their command cars,
watching the Patlabors and Griffons stand off.
"Man, I ain't seen things so tense since that fucking 'cease-fire'
in Korea," Decker cursed.
"You and me both," Kaz said. "How much longer is this going to go
on?"
"Not much longer," Goto said.
"THEY"RE NOT GOING TO SURRENDER. EAT HOT PLASMA, CRIMINALS!" came
Ohta's voice from the loudspeaker of the Patlabor with the large number
"2" on it. His labor, in a smooth economical motion, pumped the action
of his gigantic pulse rifle and fired it at the Griffons.
They dodged it, of course. The blue-white flash of energy that
came from the muzzle rocketed out, the reaction forcing even his massive
mech back a half-step. It slammed into the side of the Tower, tearing a
gigantic hole through the remains of the Fusion Boomer rampage.
"OHTA, YOU MORON!" came Noa's voice from the last Patlabor, the
one marked with a number "1" and the name "Alphonse."
The Griffons evinced a whole new level of speed in dealing with
the Patlabors. Against boomers and ADPolice armor, they had only needed
their strength and size, but when finally faced with something their own
size, the Griffons had to fall back on the trademark of the original:
Speed. They rushed the Patlabors, coming from three sides, moving
almost too fast to be seen.
Noa and Leon tried to bring their rifles to bear, but the Griffons
were upon them before they could fire. There was a loud crunch as the
mechs collided.
Inside his Patlabor, Leon cursed. The controls weren't that
different from the ADPolice Armor (which made sense, since the ADP armor
was a descendent of this original design) but he had no experience with
driving something this big. He was here as a warm body and because he
felt that someone should represent the ADPolice in this fight. He
flailed backwards, trying to keep his mech upright. Then he checked for
damage.
There was none. Looking over to one side, he saw the Griffon that
had hit him looking in shock at a mangled arm.
"I don't get it," he muttered. "What happened?"
"Noa, Ohta, Leon, it seems that the Griffon's armor is made out of
modern composites... lighter, but not as strong as the Ingram armor.
Try to close in hand-to-hand with them." Goto said over their comm
network. Faintly, Leon could hear Asuma talking to Noa over his
personal line.
The Patlabors always deployed with a the Forward, the mech unit
itself, and the Backup, someone in the command car at the site who could
take a more strategic view of the battlefield. Goto, Shige, and Asuma
were filling these roles for them now.
"Damn, what are those things made of?" Max groused.
"Looks like its steel-based," Jackson replied. "Our armor is
designed to deal with particle beams and fusion attacks. We weren't
supposed to meet up with something like this."
"So what do we do now?" Dora asked.
"We still have the edge in speed, let's use it! Scatter!"
Jackson threw his mech into sudden motion, heading for the number 3
mech. Max went after the gun-wielding lunatic in the number 2, and Dora
went after number 1. "Aim for the sensitive areas, like joints and
sensors... maybe we can cripple them!"
*****
Priss landed before the GENOM loading dock. Something had already
been here and blown a huge hole in the gates.
"I guess this is where the other Griffon went." Priss said,
disengaging from her Motoslave. Its AI went on automatic immediately,
alert for any threats. "OK, boy, you go first." I must be getting old,
Priss thought to herself. I'm getting CAUTIOUS.
The caution paid off. Deep in the shadows of the loading bay, a
red light flashed. With no other warning, Griffon-1 launched itself at
the Motoslave, its guns blazing. In response, the Motoslave raised its
shield, but the bullets and shells blew it backward slightly.
"Bastard!" Priss yelled, launching herself in the air. She
hovered for a moment above her Motoslave and swung out her railgun.
With a sharp SNAP! and discharge of ozone, she sent a spike right toward
its sensor array. The Griffon covered its face with its hands, blocking
the hypervelocity missile. Shocked, Priss dropped back down behind the
shield of her Motoslave, which was now taking pots shots at the Griffon
with its 35mm handgun. It hit, but just pitted the armor covering the
Griffon's chest and arms.
Damn, I hope it doesn't have any missiles left, Priss thought.
The missiles launched a second later, of course.
Damn! OK, God, DON'T do me any favors, why don't you?
The first missiles slammed into her Motoslave's shield, detonating
and destroying it utterly. The next one hit the mech in the chest and
smashed on through, shattering its spine and blowing it backward like a
rag doll. Priss readied herself to try and dodge the onslaught.
Suddenly, a great roaring sound hit her ears, making her stagger.
The sound crashed past her like a wave, and she was vaguely aware that
she was only catching the slightest part of that wave. A red and black
figure stood beside her, arms outstretched, the sound pouring out of a
chest-mounted emitter that had previously been hidden by panels of
armor. The panels had swung aside, not unlike a boomer heat beam's
shielding, to allow the weapon to fire.
The wall of sound hit the missiles and they all went up in a
massive explosion. Priss shielded her head with her arms as the blast
and shrapnel washed over her. Then she turned on her rescuer.
"Vision! What are YOU doing here? I told Nene to take you with
her!"
Reika closed the panels on her chest. "And I decided you needed
my help more than she did." She and Priss ducked outside the loading
bay, out of sight of the Griffon. It chose not to follow. "I may be
the rookie, Priss-san, but I know better than to go alone into the heart
of enemy territory."
"What the hell did you use, anyway?"
"New sonic weapon Sylia made up. She apparently thought it was
appropriate for me. So, what are we going to do?"
"Where's your Motoslave?"
"I left it on auto between here and the fight. It might be able
to slow down the Griffons if they get past the police. Do you think
we'll need it?"
Priss just gave Reika a look which was unfortunately lost behind
her visor. "You have any other way to take out eight-meter-tall mechs?"
"As a matter of fact..."
*****
The three Ingram Patlabors fell into a defensive huddle, keeping
their backs to each other, denying the Griffons a chance to split them
up and defeat them in detail.
"Take THIS!" Ohta yelled, firing another shot at the evasive
Griffons. "And THIS! ANDTHISANDTHISANDTHIS!!!"
"Ohta! Stop wasting ammunition!" Asuma shouted, but he could
hardly hear himself think over the constant roar of the pulse rifle.
Leon and Noa were more cautious, trying to wait for a good shot.
The Griffons tried several times to close with them, but were driven off
by the pulse rifles each time. The impasse was not going to last,
however.
Jackson reached a decision. "Dora, Max... prepare to feint toward
the city. If we look like we're escaping, they'll have to come after
us."
The Griffons broke off their harrying of the Ingrams and sprinted
for the city streets.
Only to be stopped by something standing in their way.
In the middle of the street, sways slightly like a punch-drunk
fighter, its armor scored and crumpled with damage, stood Griffon-4.
"Looks like the traitor doesn't know when to quit!" Dora sneered.
Griffon-5 jumped forward, arms outstretched to take on its former
teammate.
"Dora! She's not worth it!" Jackson yelled, to no avail. His
threat monitor wailed and he spun around. The Ingrams were closing, led
by that gun-wielding maniac. "Damn! Max, can you handle both #2 and
#3? They seemed to be the less skillful ones. I'll take on #1."
"Gotcha! Prepare to die, assholes!" Max raised his arms and let
out a stream of cannon fire at the Ingrams. Number 2, as was typical,
stopped and raised his pulse rifle.
Jackson headed off the #1 Ingram. It still held its pulse rifles
close against its chest, not even unlimbering it to have ready. He
hoped to sweep by it on one side and try and incapacitate its sensors.
He never got close. Noa dropped her pulse rifle and swung her old
baton, which she had hidden behind the weapon's bulk. Moving swiftly,
she caught the Griffon alongside its head, shearing it clear off. The
decapitated stump sparked and sizzled fitfully as the giant mech reeled
backward. She followed it up with a spinning wheel kick, her Ingram
moving as smoothly and certainly as any human, catching the black and
grey mech in its side. There was a dull crunch as armor buckled and
tore beneath the hit. Jackson's Griffon stumbled and fell to its knees.
With a little side-step, Noa got behind it and raised her baton high,
bringing it down in a underhand sweeping motion to thrust it into the
Griffon's spine. Its back broken, the terror mech slumped down, lying
still.
Max, Ohta, and Leon faced each other tensely for a moment, then
Max spoke, using his loudspeakers. "Think you're a big man with that
gun, don't you, cop? Do you think you're faster than I am?" In an
almost comical gesture, the Griffon stood like a Western gunslinger,
hands twitching at its waist, its forearm cannon gleaming.
"Is that a challenge, punk?" Ohta screamed back.
"Um, is this really a good idea?" Leon offered.
"Ohta, you moron! Just shoot him!" Asuma yelled, a little less
restrained. Beside him, Goto lit a cigarette and just smiled.
"Shut up, Shinohara! This is a challenge between men! McNichol,
don't interfere!" Ohta barked.
"Whatever...." Leon said, backing off. He looked around for
Priss, just to make sure she was OK and became alarmed when he realized
he couldn't see her anywhere. If she had gone off somewhere and gotten
into trouble. He immediately went looking for her.
Ohta slung his pulse rifle behind his mech's back and stood before
Max. "Draw, criminal!" Ohta yelled, focusing his anger, his rage on his
opponent. Long ago, Ohta had found a talent that no one else had ever
apparently possessed before, the ability to focus his near-constant
anger into a Zen-like state of enhanced concentration and control. He
now focused that concentration on his opponent.
Max pulled back on his controls to raise his arms and fire.
Ohta's Ingram shot out its right hand, down to its calf, which
popped open to reveal a large, perfectly scaled, handgun. In one fluid
motion, he grabbed it and brought it up. Before Max's arm even reached
chest level, a single shot blew the Griffon's head off. The second,
hitting the chest plate square on, tore through the armor and entered
the pilot's compartment, killing Max instantly (and messily.) The third
and fourth shots smashed the hip joints, causing the terror mech to
slump to the ground.
"Yes! Take that you low-life scum! I LOVE SABOTS!" Ohta
screamed, laughing maniacally. Unlimbering his pulse rifle he ran
maniacally over to the Griffon and began pumping it full of point-blank
plasma again and again, screaming epithets the entire time.
"Is he always like that?" Decker asked Goto, back at the command
cars.
"I took him off his medication today. It may not have been a good
idea." Goto replied.
"Bitch!" Dora screamed at Linna, launching her Griffon at the
Knight Saber. The two mechs collided loudly. Linna scrambled with her
controls as she toppled over backwards, trying to regain her balance.
Dora was on her in a flash, her Griffon standing over the fallen mech.
She raised her foot to bring it crashing down on Linna's chest armor.
Linna made sure she was there to meet it. Rolling desperately to
one side, she got her Griffon out of danger and struggled to her feet.
Dora was after her too quickly for that, however, and Griffon-4 got
kicked in the face, sending it back into a building, smashing the
storefront.
"You should have stayed dead, bitch. Now I have to get my hands
dirty. I didn't want to do that, but Milly will forgive me for killing
a traitor." The terrorist's voice got ugly with hate. "I don't know
what she saw in you, anyway!" Griffon-5 began to pummel the nearly
helpless mech. "You don't love her! I do!" she screamed as her fists
smashed into Griffon-4's head and chest.
Linna tried to raise one of her mech's arms to protect herself.
Dora grabbed on to and began to pull. There was a screech of metal and
then the arm came off in Griffon-5's hands.
Dora looked at it dumbly for a moment, giving Linna the chance to
scramble out from underneath the Griffon and get to her feet. She took
several deep breaths. "Focus, Linna," she muttered. Her Griffon was
hurt bad and the loss of the arm was crippling. What chance did she
have against Dora?
Then, as if he was right there beside her, she heard her father's
voice.
He had been explaining armed vs. unarmed combat to her in the
dojo. "The armed opponent has an advantage, usually in strength and
reach, but they can still be taken out, no matter how fearsome their
weapon. They can be disarmed. You may have to take a hit or two to get
close, but once you are there, the unarmed fighter has the advantage."
"What if you are the one with the weapon, Father?" Linna has
asked.
"An unarmed fighter cannot be disarmed because her weapon is a
part of them. The armed fighter must make her weapon a part of them, an
extension of their body. Then, they cannot be disarmed." Her father
had smiled then, "At least not unless you opponent is very good."
"And if I am so badly outclassed? What can I do then, Father? If
I have no choice but to fight?"
"Linna-chan, let me tell you a story. There was once a tea
ceremony master who had been made a samurai by his lord. Now, he had no
idea how to use the swords, but he accepted them anyway. One day, he
inadvertently insulted a young warrior, who challenged him to a fight.
Panicked, the tea master went to a swordsman, asking for training. In
response, the swordsman asked the tea master to prepare some tea. He
did so, his movements done easily and swiftly, with no thought required.
The swordsman told him then to imagine that the sword was like his tea
ladle, something that the tea master was used to and familiar with from
long practice. If the tea master could reach the same state of calm
non-thinking, and if he held his sword high and attacked at the same
time as the young warrior, he might at least take his opponent with him.
The tea master did this, and when the young warrior saw the look in his
eyes, his acceptance of death, then he backed down, and did not fight
the tea master. Now, your enemy will not always back down, but you can
still defeat him, if you are willing to pay the price."
Linna slowed her breathing, calming herself. Mentally, she said a
small prayer of thanks to her father's spirit for his teachings, and
prepared herself. She stopped thinking of her Griffon as a machine, a
device, but rather saw it as herself, facing Dora in hand-to-hand
combat.
Griffon-5 stood up and tossed aside Griffon-4's arm
contemptuously. "This ends NOW, traitor," Dora hissed over the comm
system.
Linna made no reply. Her Griffon just stood there, awaiting her
opponent's attack. Inside the cockpit, one of her hands stood poised
over a shielded switch.
Griffon-5 charged Griffon-4, its hands outstretched to grab the
chest plate and tear it off.
Griffon-4 spun around at the last moment and began to run. Dora
crowed in triumph at her foe's cowardice. Her Griffon grabbed the
other, snagging its remaining arm, then putting it into a half-nelson.
"Now, I'm going to tear you in two, bitch!" Dora hissed.
Linna uncovered the shielded switch and hit it. Alarms began to
ring inside her cockpit and red lights glared. She paid them no mind
but instead reached down between her feet and pulled at a yellow and
black cord.
Dora got five more seconds to gloat, then the hatch above Griffon-
4's cockpit blew off and the pilot's seat shot through it up into the
air. Five seconds after that, the self-destruct charges SCHAFT had
designed into the Griffons, the ones meant to hide their involvement in
case capture was imminent, went off, enveloping Griffon-4 and Griffon-5
in a ball of flame.
Linna saw the flash and then the shockwave hit, sending her chair
tumbling through the air. A building loomed suddenly before her as she
spun around wildly. She braced for the impact--
--and a giant white hand caught her as gently as an outfielder's
glove catching a pop fly. It was still a rough stop, and Linna couldn't
help but scream as she felt her left shoulder dislocate in a blaze of
agony, but it was better than smashing into the side of a building.
Looking up, she saw one of the giant black and white mechs was holding
her. The pilot, a little old lady with russet-colored hair
"Sorry I couldn't get here sooner," she said with a smile. "But I
guess I got here in time."
*****
The Griffon in the loading bay watched the entrances with the
patience only a machine could muster. It had been instructed to guard
this point and it would, until it received new orders. The SCHAFT AI
was undismayed by its diminished stores of ammo and missiles. It would
fight until it was destroyed, regardless.
Motion by the main entrance caught its sensors. Two figures in
hardsuits were rushing it. It brought up its cannon, but the targets
jinked and turned erratically, not giving it any pattern to anticipate.
The hardsuited warriors approached to within point-blank range.
Then Priss leaped high into the air, the jets on her back firing to give
her extra altitude. While leaping, she unlimbered its railgun and began
firing, taking careful aim at the Griffon's sensors. Programmed to
protect its delicate 'eyes,' the Griffon once again raised its arms to
shield them.
As it did so, Reika ran forward and ducked between its legs. She
spun around almost instantly, a large, glowing blade extending from each
wrist, and slashed at the back of the Griffon's knees. The glowing
blades sank into the delicate joint assemblies easily, crippling the
monster mech.
The Griffon fell forward, stopping its fall with its hands. As it
did so, Reika leaped up onto its back and scrambled to its head. Once
there, she began to plunge her blades into its delicate sensors.
"Get going, Priss! You're the only one who knows where this damn
thing is we're suppose to protect! I can hold this thing now!"
Priss wavered for a moment, then nodded and rocketed down the
halls of GENOM.
"Yeah, this will be a piece of cake," Reika muttered. At that
moment, as if to mock her words, the Griffon reached up blindly and
managed to grab one of her legs. She shrieked as it flung her off its
head (now a mangled wreck) and into one of the loading dock bays. The
impact knocked the breath out of her and left her senseless, barely
aware of the scraping sound of metal on concrete. The sound of the
Griffon crawling towards her.
*****
Milly pried open another security door. When the disaster
protocols had been triggered, the doors had slammed down all over GENOM
Tower, blocking almost all access. However, to her surprise, the doors
between her and her objective were all unsealed and easy to open. She
saw no guards and wasn't too surprised. The Fusion Boomers had taken
out most of the boomers, and the humans were now safely locked up in
survival shelters.
"Never look a gift horse in the mouth," she said as she easily
forced open another door, shoving the heavy steel assembly to one side.
"But this is too easy."
Suddenly, the doors opened onto a large room filled with
computers, each of them softly whirring and beeping as they went about
some task. In the center of the room, a large, horseshoe-shaped super-
computer sat, cables running from it to all the other machines. And,
easily visible in the center of the U, was a hand-sized block of
molecular crystal, used for storage of terabytes of data in an easily
portable form. The OMS.
"At last," she breathed. She reached up and put her hand on the
soft humming pice of crystal. "At last, freedom."
Gently, she pulled at the crystal, working it loose from its
socket. It came free easily, darkening to opacity as it did so. The
computers protested with a high-pitched hum, which ran down to silence.
One by one, they shut down, as if she had pulled the plug on the entire
set-up. In a way, she thought with a grin, she had.
"Put it back."
She started at the unexpected, yet familiar vice from behind her.
Her hand twitched to her gun, but the menacing snap of a railgun
capacitor charging stopped her.
"None of that," Priss said, aiming her railgun at the terrorist's
back. "Now, turn around, slowly."
"I don't think you'd like that... Priss," Milly said.
Priss felt the blood drain from her face in shock. "How do you
know--?" she began to ask. Then the terrorist turned around and let
Priss see her face, a very familliar face, framed by vibrantly green
hair. Its features tended more towards cuteness than beauty, but with a
particular elfin charm that had attracted its share of admirers.
Priss's hand droped to her side and her knees nearly buckled.
What she was seeing was impossible, but somehow, one stangled word
escaped her lips.
"A-Anri..."
"Hi, Priss," Anri said softly, mockingly. "Miss me? Gee, I guess
not, since you just LEFT me here over a year ago!" The words flew like
a railgun spike at the Knight Saber, hitting deeply.
"I-I thought you were dead... like Sylvie. I thought Largo killed
you..."
"Oh, yes, that made everything so easy for you, didn't it? No
loose ends, no boomers for friends, no more complications." Anri's
voice became even more venomous as she stepped closer to Priss. "I
should have expected it, though... what further use did you have me?
What further use did ANYONE have for me? I was never more than a tool
to you, to ANY of you!"
"T-that's not true! Sylvie--"
"DON'T YOU SAY HER NAME, MURDERER! YOU KILLED HER! WHAT RIGHT DO
YOU HAVE TO TALK ABOUT HER!" Anri's face was contorted by rage as she
screamed at Priss, lunging forward with the need to strike the focus of
her rage. Priss winced at her words and at the pain she could see in
her old friend.
"Do you have any idea what I went through, Priss?" Anri asked, now
only three feet from the Knight Saber. "They threw me out with the
TRASH! I was just barely hanging onto life, and it took me almost six
MONTHS to regenerate my systems on Dream Island! I had to feed on the
blood of RATS until I could move enough to find humans, or be able to
synthesize my own!" She was screeching now. "I'VE SEEN HELL BECAUSE OF
YOU! And you can go to hell for all I care!"
The last line was delivered very quietly, almost unheard by its
audience. But Anri suddenly had a knife in her hand, vibroblade which,
if used with enough strength, could cut through almost anything. Its
edges gleamed as she suddenly plunged it into the breastplate of Priss's
hardsuit. Its sharp point, driven by boomer muscle, slid through the
armor and entered Priss's heart.
Priss staggered back, in shock. The redness swirled around her
eyes, but a new element, a darkness she remembered seeing on GENOM
Tower's summit when she had almost died, was rising faster than it. "A-
Anri..." she croaked, before she fell over.
Anri looked down at the body at her feet and stepped around the
widening pool of blood. Then, OMS crystal in hand, she headed for the
door, whistling a happy little tune.
*****
Reika struggled to regain her senses as she heard the Griffon
crawl toward her. It had thrown her a good distance, but she knew she
didn't have much time, even if it was crippled. She scrambled to her
feet--
--only to be smashed down by a large, black fist. She screamed as
she fell back against the wall, expecting the next hit to mash her into
a pulp.
"NO, YOU DON'T!" shouted a electronically amplified voice.
Reika looked up, struggling to clear her vision. A large white
blur stood over the low black blur she knew to be the Griffon. Shaking
her head, she saw it was the Patlabor #3, the one Leon was piloting. As
she watched, he brought a large baton down on the Griffon's back,
severing it neatly. There was a small explosion, and then the Griffon
lay still.
"L-Leon?" Reika asked as she stood shakily.
"HOWDY!" he said, flippantly, making his labor give her a snappy
salute. "WHERE'S YOUR PARTNER?" he asked, concern evident in his voice.
"She went that way," Reika said, pointing at one of the doors
leading out of the bay.
Leon popped his head out of the upper Ingram hatch and yelled
down, "We better go look for her, then... she has a knack for getting
into trouble." With that, the Ingram knelt down, allowing Leon to
clmaber out of its chest hatch, onto its knee, and then down its arm to
the ground. He drew his "Earth Shaker" .60-caliber revolver and started
toward the door. Reika followed, a bit shakily at first.
They found the trail easy to follow, as they came across one open
security door after another. Leon hurried along, quickening his pace
almost without realizing it, as his concern for Priss grew. It grew
even worse when they finally came to the OMS room, and he saw her lying
there in a pool of blood.
"PRISS!" he screamed, running to her.
"Oh, no..." Reika whispered, hurrying behind him.
Neither of them looked back to see a waifish figure sneak out of a
utility closet and run back the way they came.
Leon hovered over Priss, afraid to even touch her. "This is
bad..." he muttered, looking at the pool of blood surrounding the still
figure.
"No... shit, Sherlock," Priss muttered, suddenly, her voice rough
with pain.
"Priss! You're alive?" Leon exclaimed.
"Barely..." she whispered. "Get... knife... out..."
Leon turned Priss over and was almost sick at the sight of the
knife buried up to its hilt in her chest. He yanked it free and tossed
it aside.
"B-better..." Priss managed to say. "Nanoids... couldn't heal...
my heart like that... Leon, it was Anri..." Tears fell from Priss's
eyes. "I left her to become like that... it's all my fault!"
Leon caught Priss up in a helpless hug. "Shhh, Priss... It's OK.
We'll find her... help her somehow. I promise." Hie eyes hardened as
Priss fell unconscious. "I promise we'll find her."
Epilogue:
Sylia opened her eyes to be greeted by several smiling faces by
her hospital bed. She managed a slight smile in return and tried to sit
up straighter, which caused her to wince in pain.
"Damn, and you said I was stubborn, Sylia," Priss said with a
grin. She was sitting by Leon, fully recovered from her wounds, thanks
to the nanoids in her blood.
"But you're looking much better, Sylia! You'll be out of here
soon, I know it!" Nene piped up. She was the only one who had seen how
badly Sylia had been hurt by the KnightWing crash. If she had taken any
longer to get to her...
"You have to take better care of yourself, Sylia," Reika chimed
in. "You know what they say, if you die, we all get a promotion... and
I don't think Priss is THAT eager to be leader."
"NO WAY!" Priss said emphatically, drawing a laugh from all
present.
"So," Sylia said, "does someone want to fill me in on the
situation?"
"The AGF is finished," Linna said quietly, her arm still in a
sling from her battle with Dora. "They've lost their backers and their
headquarters. The only problem is, their leader never resurfaced."
"She got what she was looking for, Sylia," Priss said miserably.
"I couldn't stop her... it was Anri."
Sylia's eyes widened. "That explains a lot," was all she said,
giving Priss a sympathetic look. "What is GENOM doing about it?"
"Besides cleaning up the mess?" Leon asked. "They're blaming the
whole thing on SCHAFT, and there's some evidence to back them up.
SCHAFT, for its part, is blaming their executives here for having their
own agenda, but no one is buying that story. I don't think SCHAFT will
be welcome in this country any time soon. Chief Goto and a Mr. Jim
Ashima testified about the Griffon mechs and SCHAFT's previous
involvement. And GENOM was helping us for once." Leon's voice turned
very ironic for the last sentence. "The City also gave the old Patlabor
squad and me a medal, but they're denying the Knight Sabers were
involved... typical, I suppose."
Sylia nodded turned toward the large bay window in her private
suite. The Griffons were finished, but the loose ends still dangled. A
sexaroid was loose with the power to potentially control any boomer she
wished. Someone she thought dead had spoken to her, warning her of the
OMS's weakness. That would have to be investigated carefully. What
would happen next?
There was a knock at the door. Chief Goto stood there, a bouquet
of flowers in his arms. "Ah, hello," he said. "Mind if I visit for a
moment?"
"Uncle Kiichi?" Sylia asked in surprise.
"UNCLE KIICHI?" everyone exploded.
"Well, not really," Goto said, smiling. "I'm a friend of the
family. I just let her and her brother call me 'uncle' after their
father died."
"You knew Dr. Stingray?" Leon asked, his sunglasses slipping off
his face in surprise. Goto nodded. "Somehow, that makes sense," Leon
said.
Everyone had a laugh, then Priss turned to Sylia. "Hurry up and
get better, Sylia, and we'll have a party to celebrate." She winked at
Linna.
"Hold on, not at MY place again! That's how this whole mess
started!"
*****
"I am disappointed by your failure to guard the OMS, Larsen,
Madigan," Chairman Quincy said gravely from behind his desk.
"We took every precaution we could, sir," Largo replied. "We'll
get it back before the terrorist can assemble the machinery to utilize
the program."
"You had better, Larsen. If you and Madigan had not performed so
well against Kelly, I would not even be considering giving you this
chance. Find the OMS, and find it quickly!"
"Yes, sir!" they both said, and then they were dismissed.
Together, they walked down the halls of power, neither looking at each
other. Finally, Madigan spoke.
"Where should we begin looking, do you think?"
"My dear, we shall not be looking. I think the Knight Sabers have
excellent reasons of their own to find this terrorist in question, and
they seemed blessed with an uncanny sort of luck." He ushered her into
his office. "We shall use them to find the OMS, and then dispose of two
problems with one blow."
"And how will you use them?"
"Through a traitor in their ranks."
"A traitor? I find that hard to believe."
"Look at this, then..." Largo said, calling up a camera feed on
his monitor. "Thanks to a serendipitous accident, we have discovered
the identity and enough personal information about one of the Knight
Sabers to construct a doppelganger, a specialized 33-S2. This boomer
will infiltrate the Knight Sabers, and, when the time is right,
eliminate them."
Madigan looked at the screen and smiled. She hooked her hand in
Largo's, their systems once again linking in a union far more profound
than anything a mere human could experience.
On the screen, a naked Nene Romanova floated in a large nanotank,
being watched over by Dr. Miriam Yoshida.
*****
Somewhere, in a safehouse she had prepared long ago, Anri
contemplated the OMS crystal and began to laugh.
The End.
Author's Notes:
Well, THIS has taken forever... it's been almost two years since I
started this story, and it's been changing ever since I first came up
with the idea. I apologize it took me so long to finish this last bit.
The first six parts are, of course, available at the RAAC archive.
This is the last story I will put out in chapter format... I won't
tease any more. Now that this is finished, I have learned my lesson.
As you may have noticed, I have a sequel in mind... maybe you'll
see it next year some time. :)
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the ride.
