Chapter Five:  May the Force be With You... 

	Sylia seemed calm, cool, and collected when she picked up the
phone to call a certain individual.  It had been a while since they last
saw each other, but there were bonds between them quite beyond that of an
ordinary Sempai and student.  Given what she had been thought by the
slightly older woman, and the introductions that had resulted, she knew
that she could trust this person with more than her life. 
	"Hello," a voice answered, "Who's there?" 
	"It's me, Sempai.  I need to ask a favour of you concerning a
situation you are working with." 
	"What particular situation is that?" 
	"It concerns a silvered companion of mine, and what I need him
for." 
	"You mean he's yours?  I didn't realize that you had that kind of
a connection." 
	"Could you release him without getting in trouble with the ADP?" 
	"I can arrange it.  Hitomi's not going to be happy about this,
especially since she thinks he's hiding one of her officers.  A Leon
McNichol." 
	"The Chief Inspector is not happy with many things, and I can
assure you he has not hidden her officer.  If anything, he would be glad
to help find him." 
	"I'll find a way to release him, and inform my sister that he
escaped.  I will call you with any information you may need." 
	"I didn't know she was your sister." 
	"She has changed a bit since University, Sylia.  I am surprised
that you didn't recognize her." 
	"So am I.  If you have need, please call." 
	"I will." 

***

	Things were not going well for Leon. 
	First, there was the phony call from 'SkyKnight', who had
requested a meeting with him.  This was somewhat unusual, enough to pique
his interest as it had never occurred before.  While SkyKnight was not
very forthcoming on a lot of subjects, he could usually take care of
himself.  He also did not need to ask Leon for information since Nene
could access whatever he required quickly and quietly.  This had been
enough to kindle his suspicions. 
	He had prepared for this meeting by first visiting the medical
section of the building and getting one of the emergency kits stored
there.  Although hardly ever used, there was a section in Medical that had
to do with the intelligence gathering branch of the ADP.  The kit he had
taken was concerned with truth drugs and serums, and ways to prevent them
from working. 
	Like all other police services in Japan, the ADP had 'expanded'
sections that handled what would be normal for military intelligence
services and spy organizations in other countries.  While this could not
be handled under the constitution in a normal form, it could be handled
under the heading of 'police investigative procedures.' This was one of
the reasons that most of the police forces in Japan had such a high
conviction rate.  The arrests were assisted with intelligence information
that was not available to other police services around the world. 
	Right now, the dose that he took had been enough to prevent the
people who had grabbed him from finding out anything about the Knight
Sabers or the 'boomer', as they were calling Bert. 
	Sick to his stomach, he was continuing to act as though the
answers to the questions they were asking him were true, and that the
various drugs that they had pumped into his system were working.  He knew
that he couldn't keep this up forever, and that the limit of the
anti-toxin that he had taken would wear off in a few hours, but if they
believed him, his city would be safe.  He had to hold on as long as he
could. 
	He had to hope they didn't learn differently. 

***

	A figure wrapped in a brown flowing cloak looked over the small
complex of buildings that formed the Dynelex Laboratory complex.  If
anyone had observed her from where she had secreted herself, they would
have said that she was impressed with the structures, given the look of
concentration on the youngish face.  They would have been wrong. 
	As Priss turned her attention from area to area within the
complex, having already used her senses to find the general area where
Bert was being held, she tried to feel the presence of the various
lifeforms within the buildings.  Something was wrong with what she was
detecting however, although she couldn't quite figure out what it was. 
Not that it mattered.  If anything went wrong, Priss would simply evade or
destroy it.  Destroy being the operative word. 
	Going towards the scientific complex, she leapt over the outside
fence easily; her skills with basic levitation having given her enough
control to do this.  Keeping to the shadows as she had been thought with
her time in the Knight Sabers, she quickly headed to one of the buildings
situated near the centre of the area.  So far she hadn't been detected,
but she still felt something was wrong.  It was as if there was something
missing, something important. 
	Looking up, she rose quickly to the roof, using her powers to help
stabilize her as she climbed.  She wasn't quite good enough to leap to the
top of a five story building.  She doubted that ANYONE was that good. 
Once on the roof, she scanned quickly for electrical spy devices, and was
surprised to find none.  Where she would only have been slightly worried
before about something feeling wrong, this was more than that.  What
company would deny itself the basic protection of a proper security
system?  She decided to scan further, in case it was a trap and that's
when it came to her what was wrong. 
	There was absolutely no trace of a boomer of any kind. 

***

	Madigan rushed into Quincy's office, not bothering with the usual
protocols of calling or knocking on his door.  She had to rush if they
were to act on the information, and given what they had done in the past,
it had to be kept quiet.  "Sir, we have a slightly serious situation that
requires your immediate attention." 
	Quincy looked up from where he was, a little surprised at
Madigan's lack of courtesy.  She was obviously anxious to tell him
something, although he could not figure out what was so urgent that she
couldn't just call him quickly.  "What is the situation Madigan?" 
	"ADPolice have just captured SkyKnight." 
	Quincy stood up quickly, excitement shining in his eyes as he
thought of what he wanted to do to the wise-cracking Knight Saber.  "Send
out a team of boomers to perform a recovery right away.  I don't care
where he is or how he is being held." 
	"Yes sir, and the information a certain individual has on that
special boomer should be arriving soon.  Do you want the source
terminated?" 
	"Any reason for him to suspect our involvement or who any of the
extraction team are?" 
	"None sir." 
	"Then have him released somewhere.  He may be useful to us in the
future." 
	Madigan replied in the affirmative and left to carry out Quincy's
orders. 
	Quincy wondered what he would do first when he had SkyKnight. 
Force him to work for Genom, tell him who the other Knight Sabers were, or
plain torture him.  It was so much fun contemplating the possibilities. 

***

	Priss had quickly checked to be sure, but now there was no doubt. 
There were no boomers in the area or on the grounds.  Either this was an
extremely lucky break or a trap, and it was more likely the latter.  She
was willing to bet that someone was expecting the Knight Sabers to show up
and rescue their errant member. 
	That was when Priss realized that she should have been expecting
that too.  "Damn it!" she swore as quietly as she could, "You've all been
captured haven't you?"  As much as she wanted to do so, she couldn't risk
using the communications system in case it was heard.  She'd get Bert
first and decide what to do from there.  Since he had the greater powers,
then he should be able to figure out something. 
	Summoning the lightsaber, she turned it on, and a beam of purple
energy came flashing out.  Unlike the older plasma lightsaber that Bert
had originally developed, this one was magically enhanced in a way that
allowed the beam to reflect all types of energy streams.  It was weird,
but as it turned out, anyone with the abilities of the Force could build
such a lightsaber.  The main difference was the focus crystal that each
Jedi either found or made.  In this case, Bert had made several crystals
with Darlene and they all had differing frequencies, and thus different
colours of light to the blade. 
	Using it as a knife, she quickly cut a hole in the roof of the
building and dropped in with her energy sword held ready. 
	She had to act quickly, as the alarms had already sounded and she
could hear someone running towards the area.  Not paying attention to
whoever it was, she located Bert, and was surprised to see that he wasn't
restrained.  She went over and slid an arm under his shoulder and helped
him up.  God was he heavy in the armour.  Heavy enough that she wasn't
going to be able to lift him to the roof like she'd originally planned. 
She turned to the wall that was near the outside and started to cut a
hole, when woman came into the room. 
	Tokugawa Oneiko was not given to bursts of anger, her demeanor
being very much like Sylia's.  Seeing someone cutting up one of her labs,
however, was not a situation that she enjoyed.  She activated the
vari-armour suit that she still had not taken off and pulled out her own
lightsaber. 
	"Hold it, whoever you are.  You're not getting out of here that
easily." 
	Priss turned to see a black haired woman wearing some very
familiar armour.  From the looks of it, whoever this woman was, it was not
someone that she had the time to mess around with.  Not without some
concern, and hoping that she would be able to guide him down to the
ground, she leapt out of the hole holding Bert. 

***

	The quad of boomers that had appeared at the outside of the
complex looked on as SkyKnight and a brown robed figure fell to the
ground, a black armoured figure that was slipping a helmet on not far
behind.  When they had been sent to acquire SkyKnight from whoever was
holding him, they were not told to expect this.  They contacted their base
for instructions and were told to try to see if they could get all three
of the individuals. 
	The Boomers started in towards the complex of buildings and
readied their weapons arrays. 

***

	Priss was cursing a little, especially since that drop had not
been easy.  She had survived, mostly by luck, but the landing had hurt
like hell.  Quickly putting an arm under Bert's, she lifted him up and
started towards the fence. 
	"I don't want to have to hurt you, whoever you are, but I would
advise you stop before I have to use deadly force,"  Oneiko threatened,
although she was wondering if she could actually take this creature on. 
Her suit said that the person who stood in front of her was biological,
but given the drop that she had taken, with an armoured figure that had to
weigh well over half a tonne, she was obviously not a normal human. 
	Priss placed Bert down slowly, and activated her lightsaber once
more.  "He's leaving with me, whether or not I leave you in pieces is up
to you." 
	Oneiko snorted, "Not likely girl, you need more experience." 
	That was when the boomers started firing. 

***

	Madigan looked at the screen in amazement.  One of the mysterious
hardsuits that they had been trying to find was there, facing off against
a being in a brown cloak.  Whatever had happened, the building were they
where fighting was obviously a wreck, torn apart from the inside. 
	The possibility that Dynelex had been the source of this new
boomer, or at least knew more about the boomer than anyone had imagined,
gained credence as the brown cloaked being deflected a laser bolt from one
of the Genom's boomers with a lightsaber. 
	The two figures, both female, attacked the boomers and made short
work of them, none having been prepared for this contingency. 

***

	Priss turned to face the black suited figure, "Shall we do this
again?" 
	Oneiko looked at what they had wrought with the unexpected attack
by the boomers.  "No need.  I shouldn't have tried to use my weapon to
sting you like that, although you seem immune to various types of rays." 
	Priss started, then shrugged it off.  The wording that this black
armoured figure had used had to be a coincidence.  "True.  So what are we
going to do?" 
	"You get out of here and take him with you.  I have a feeling that
he'll be safe in your hands." 
	"Where are the others?" 
	"There's only him.  The others got away." 
	Unsure of what else to do, Priss saluted her with the lightsaber,
gathered SkyKnight, and left. 
	Oneiko saluted the departing figure, "We'll meet again, whoever
you are, and somehow, I will get to know you." 

THE NEXT DAY... 

	Bert opened his eyes slowly to see the ceiling of his bedroom. 
That was good in a way, it meant that everything that had happened was a
dream and thus... 
	Bert suddenly jerked himself up and out of bed, immediately
crashing back down to it as all the muscles in his body exploded with
pain, and the biggest head- ache he ever suffered hit.  "Oh booyyyy..." 
	As he opened his eyes slowly, the spots of light behind his eyes
disappeared slightly and he became aware of his surroundings once more. 
Not only was he not in his armour, he was lying in his bedroom.  The
bedroom from the old house which had been abandoned almost a year earlier
due to the likelihood that Hollister would try to grab him from there
again.  Somehow he had never gotten around to selling the place, so it had
been sealed and left alone. 
	Of course, if he was here without his armour, then someone knew
who he was. 
	The last thing he remembered a huge amount of pain when the Chief
had hit him, but nothing should have affected him that way.  The closest
thing to such an incident where he felt something similar was what the
HeadHunter had hit him with.  The damn weapon had bypassed his suit
completely and he never figured out what the hell the boomer had been
using. 
	That's when he remembered something extremely important to him. 
"Damn,"  he swore under his breath, "Nene." 
	Despite the extreme pain, Bert got up and headed downstairs to the
phone. 

***

	Priss both hated and loved this exercise, although she had become
very good at it.  If she hadn't, she would have died the day before, when
those boomers had attacked.  Sighing, she looked over at Master Skywalker,
"Don't you think it would be better for me to wait for him to wake up and
talk to him?" 
	Yoda shook his head, "Tell her unwise it is to do so, and mention
not that you are training her."  He shook his head.  "Unexpected that was
and time I need to decide." 
	Luke grinned at his old master and turned to Priss.  "Well, not at
the moment.  You'll have a hard enough time explaining how you rescued him
without revealing that I trained you." 
	She looked at him, "Wait a second, you mean you don't want me to
tell him?" 
	He chuckled a bit, "Actually, Yoda told me to tell you that." 
	Priss rolled her eyes and muttered something to herself as she put
on the helmet.  She forced herself to relax and let the energy flow
through her, feeling everything that surrounded the area, and more,
feeling the flow of all types of energy.  The practice drone started up
and fired. 

***

	Bert had just come downstairs, after a visit to the washroom to
clean up a bit and to get a set of 333's to handle all the aches in his
body.  As he looked out the back window, he saw someone practicing with a
lightsaber.  Not quite thinking yet, he started to dismiss it, then looked
at the figure for a few moments.  *She's got good form.  Needs a bit of
practice on the riposte, but not all...that....*
	He ran out the door shouting "PRISS!  What the hell are you
doing?!" 
	Unfortunately, since he had dropped several metres to the roof's
surface the night before, his body was not yet in good condition.  As a
result, his leg started to cramp on him, and he was forced to halt his
forward momentum by grabbing the landing sidebars so he wouldn't topple
over.  Staring out at Priss, he noticed that the helmet she wore was
sealed, and that she was deflecting the lasers that were being fired at
her. 
	"How the hell is she doing that?" he muttered, and on a hunch used
his own abilities to try and detect the electromagnetic fields surrounding
her.  He was surprised at the sudden response his mind felt.  A sort of
feedback from Priss. 
	"Strong she is in the Force, young one.  Jedi she is, and powerful
will she be." 
	Bert turned slowly, "You're teaching her, aren't you Yoda?" 
	"That be not so.  Student of mine, she is not nor shall she be." 
The small green- skinned alien looked over at Bert.  "The Force flows
through all beings, all times, all things.  Train you I have, and train
you I will.  She does not require what I have to teach." 
	Bert sat stunned.  Priss, one of his best friends and, officially
speaking, his sister, was a Jedi.  *Well, no one will deny a family
connection now,* he thought as he contemplated what this meant.  That's
when he remembered the one person who would not be very pleased.  "Oh
shit!  Sylia's going to kill me..." 

***

	Sylia blocked the knife strike coming at her ribs with a twisted
back hand, and went in with a finger strike to the inner elbow that was
countered with an outhand spin.  "So the damage upstairs was caused by a
brown haired woman with an energy sword?" 
	Oneiko went to a palm strike to the chest, which was pushed aside
as her opponent went to a sword strike to the upper arm.  She used a
reverse finger twist to block and went to a two finger nerve strike to the
outer wrist.  "Yes, she was quite a good fighter, although she lacked
technique.  The young woman would be a good student if I could find her." 
	Sylia had expected the counter-blow and opted for a block flick
with her little finger while going in for a Rat's Nest finger strike to
the stomache.  "I'm not sure, offhand, who she could be, but I do have a
few suspicions.  Do you think my missing person will be all right?"  To
herself, she was wondering how in the world Priss had found out about Bert
being captured.  She was going to have to have a long talk with the girl. 
	Oneiko's instinctive block missed and her opponent scored.  "Good
move.  As for him, he should be.  She was trying to protect him,
especially when the boomers arrived.  Somehow the girl seemed delighted as
she destroyed them." 
	A chuckle escaped the lips of the leader of the Knight Sabers.  "I
think I can identify the person now, although I'm not sure how she knew
that he was in trouble.  Anyway, how have you been?  I thought you left
Japan for a while, and why didn't you contact me when you got back?" 
	"Not bad.  I did a few things for the organization and had a bit
of fun going to various 'vacation spots'.  I only got back about two years
ago, when my mother retired.  We were all hoping Hitomi would be joining
the family business, but she is too interested in being a member of the
police force to involve herself with the corporation at this point."  They
walked over to a nearby table where some tea was waiting.  "What about
you?  I knew that the white Knight Saber's battle style was familiar, but
I had no idea you had formed them.  What the hell were you thinking of,
being that obvious?" 
	Sylia looked a little embarrassed, "I wanted revenge, pure and
simple.  You remember how I was after my father died.  I know that it
wasn't the smartest thing in the world, especially with the training your
mother and your aunt gave the three of us, but it was the only thing that
I could do to keep myself sane."  She noted Oneiko's incredulous look, ",. 
I admit that I like putting on the suit and going out righting wrongs. 
Besides, my team of people do happen to give the city some hope,
especially with the depredations caused by boomer misuse." 
	A small chuckle which quickly turned into whole hearted laughter
issued from the black-haired woman.  "Sylia, I was kidding!"  Shaking her
head, she continued, "You did what you felt was right at the time. 
Besides, I know you quite well, young lady, and that group you put
together has to be very professional." 
	"At times.  They tend to break the rules I originally laid down
however." 
	"And you've never had the heart to enforce the final rule have
you?" 
	In a quiet, barely audible voice, Sylia replied, "No.  I couldn't
bring myself to do it." 
	"Then you've learned the final lesson." 

***

	If anything good could be said about Ethan Hollister, it was that
he was extremely through when it came to pursuing something, weather it be
a person, philosophy, or goal.  Given that attitude, he pursued Doc's
suggestion that he try to get one of his own people to infiltrate the
ranks of the Knight Sabers by eliminating the person currently wearing the
SkyKnight armour.  Unfortunately, that was proving to be somewhat more
difficult than originally expected. 
	Hollister was not very happy once he got a look at the data that
had been gathered by the C-17's the day before.  Given the past
performance of the suits in question, and the fact that they had been able
to disable the SkyKnight suit once before, it shouldn't have been hard for
the boomers to have acquired him.  At least that was the thought that they
had been following. 
	It was galling, but it seemed that the Knight Sabers had once
again upgraded their suits, especially that of the SkyKnight armour.  In
many ways, the reactions of the suit were completely unlike how the suit
had reacted only a few weeks before, almost as if the suit had skipped
over a couple of theoretical generations of advances.  Most unusual were
some of the new additions to the suits outside appearance, including some
crystalline areas that were amazingly resilient to damage.  If the rest of
the suits kept pace, then even their new boomers would be unable to
compete with them. 
	Of course, the fact that Squad Q had been able to arrive in time
to help the Sabers combat the C-17's was not overlooked. 
	If anything, Squad Q would also have to be put on the list of
those to be eliminated sooner or later.  The only reason that Hollister
had not given such an order thus far had more to do with the fact that
they provided interference with the Sabers in many situations, especially
since the new chief decided to try to apprehend them.  The thing that was
of concern to him now was the fact that Bert had connections to both the
Knight Sabers and to members of the squad, which could mean that he was
manipulating these people towards some unknown purpose. 
	Of course, if he was the last of the Jedi, or even a lone sentinel
sent to this planet, then Hollister would not put it past Bert to
manipulate things to end up the way he wanted them to, including tracing a
couple of possible candidates for training as Jedi. 
	After all, it was what Hollister would have done. 

***

Hitomi

Ichinohei Hitomi
Hitomi@terminal.autobahn.mb.ca
http://204.112.189.3/~hitomi
"The beginings of wisdom is the ability to always ask questions."