I posted this fic a week ago now here's an up date. 

This is going to be a multi part fic that goes from anime world to anime world.

I'm planning on making Lyon's next stop on Ranmaverse 

I'd like some C&C please.  Send to naldoza@integate.ca

On with the show....





"Unit One, this is Unit Two, we're in position."

"Roger that, Unit Two," a shadowed figure replied. "Unit One will be going through the front door in 1 minute and 50 seconds."

"Understood," came the reply. "Unit Two will enter the compound from the back 15 seconds later," a pause, then, "Be careful Maverick."

"Don't worry Gunner. Out."

Lyon, or Maverick, went back to studying the house and its surroundings, looking for anything out of the ordinary. The success of the mission and the lives of his comrades depended on him. He was in command of this mission, it was his first command. He was promoted after the last and first mission that he did for the TDC, Temporal Defense Corps. The General said that not only was he promoted to command Units One and Two, but he was supposed to train them also. He has been training them for a month and a half and they've all improved a lot. His training consisted of a gravity room and martial arts, just like in Dragon Ball. If they knew that his training method was from an anime more than 1000 years old they'd all think he was crazy and he definitely would not have gotten promoted, he thought. He'd just wanted to see if it worked, so he experimented with himself as the test subject.

He looked at the rest of his unit, like him they were all wearing full combat gear. On their heads were the latest combat head gear, helmet made of plasteel that covered the whole head and face. There was a rectangular visor that acted as eye protection and heads up display of sensors data. Their helmets also had an antenna pointing backwards diagonally on each side. The antennas were for sensors, communications and radar. They were all wearing full body skin tight suits made of a malleable version of plasteel, it wasn't as tough as the plasteel of the helmet, but it could bend and stretch a bit so it was perfect for a form fitting body suit. They were also each wearing a body armor made of the same material as their helmets for added protection. Their gloves had reenforced knuckles in case they had to fight hand to hand and their boots were made of a combination of the two different types of plasteel. All their gear was black, the natural color of plasteel, which was just perfect for night missions.

It was time to move in, he gave the signal. All members of his unit moved quietly towards the wall of the surrounding the compound. Just as quietly they were up and over it. On the other side they moved quickly towards the front door. They had to shoot three guards and the security cameras on the way. The cameras were the most important, without them the people guarding the compound won't be able to tell their numbers and exact position. With the first cameras down the guards should know that there was an attack at the front and send more of people to repel the attack. Hopefully a lot more, and that would leave the back lightly defended. That would leave Unit Two an easy way inside the house while his unit draws attention.

After a while and there was still no sound of an alarm, and no sign of additional guards. He began to run over the intel he was given. It only said to assume light to medium resistance, that's why he only took his two units of ten even though he could have taken another two units. It seems that resistance will be very light.

"Unit Two, how many guards?"

"Only two so far."

"Okay. Switch to plan B."

"Copy that, Unit One."

The rest of unit one were already flanking the front door, waiting for him to enter. One of them opened the door, another guards. No one was in sight, he entered the house followed by his unit. The first floor was clear except for the washroom where who he assumed to be the guard of the monitoring room was. They left the guard sprawled on the floor, unconscious not dead, and went down to the basement just as Unit Two was entering the house.

****

Down in the basement a mad scientist was flicking switches, pushing buttons and powering up machines. Computer screens were scrolling with technical data, that the scientist was checking once in a while.

"At last!!" the scientist shouted in joys, there was a crazy glint in his eyes. "Once I push this button, I can go back in time and no one will be able to stop me from taking over the world." He was already imagining himself as the ruler of whole world. He will crush any opposition with superior technology. Too bad that his calculations showed him that the temporal gate could only handle three to five transition. That was why he would be going by himself, but he'd take hi-tech equipment instead of men. It should be easy enough to recruit an army. "The coordinates are already set to 1999." He'd already pushed the button, activating the temporal gate when the door to the lab banged open.

He turned towards the door, saw what looked to him like a policemen and panicked. He stated ran towards the temporal gate. He was so panicked that he didn't notice the gate waver and start fluctuating. The computer screens were filled with warning signs. He jumped into the gate and what he thought was his only escape from the authorities.

As he went through the gate he felt a hand on his back, but it slid away. Then he was traveling through an energy tunnel. That was when he noticed that the tunnel wasn't stable and knew that he failed in his quest.

****

Two minutes earlier outside the door to the lab, Lyon was positioning and giving instructions to Unit One. They could all hear the sound of machines powering up and knew that they might soon be out of time.

With a signal from Lyon, a member of Unit One kicked the door open and entered. Maverick's eyes immediately locked on the man in a lab coat, then he saw the temporal gate. He did some quick thinking and shot what looked like the control panel of the gate. He was about to arrest the scientist when he suddenly started running for the gate.

He did the only thing that he could think of to stop the mad man, he ran after him and tried to tackle the running man. But he wasn't fast enough, he made a grab for the man but only barely touched him as he was about to go through the gate. Its was then that he realized too late, he was going to fast to stop before he entered the wildly fluctuating gate.

He'd traveled through temporal gates before, heck he had to because he live in the year 2000 and the TDC HQ was in year 3153. By now he was used to flying through a tunnel that looked like it was made of energy. That was what he was experiencing now but this time it wasn't smooth sailing. The ride was rough and dizzying with what seems like a hundred twist and turns.

After getting very dizzy to the point of being nauseous, he realized that transit through a temporal gate should not be taking this long. He started worrying weather or not he's going to be stuck in the tunnel. He hasn't heard of any case of someone being stuck in a tunnel, but he's heard of gates that didn't open at the designated coordinates. On those cases they always found out that the gate opened somewhere. Those incidents happened back when time travel just got started, there hasn't been an accident involving time travel in at least 500 years, according to records that is.

He was looking straight ahead, like he always does when traveling through time, so he saw what was supposed to be impossible. There was a fork in the tunnel, which was impossible, the time tunnel was supposed to go straight. Thinking about that, he realized that the twist and turns were impossible too.

He didn't have a lot of time to consider the impossibilities of it all before he was pass the fork, he went to the left, and saw that the tunnel opened not far away.





Temporal Corps Production

Proudly Presents

A Wandering Lyon

by: Leobert Naldoza

Disclaimers: 

Bubblegum Crisis is copyrighted by Artmic Inc. and

Youmex, Inc.

I am just borrowing the characters for a 

little while.



Part I -_^

He groaned as he got up, rubbing sore muscles, trying to clear his head of dizziness and his stomach of nausea. That was some ride, he didn't want to repeat the experience anytime soon. Although he was grateful that he wasn't going to be stuck in the tunnel. The dizziness and nausea tells him that he was still alive, after all he couldn't fell this bad if he was dead. He slowly got to his feet as the world slowly stopped spinning and his stomach began to settle. After he got up and was feeling better, he looked around and saw that he was in a darkened alley. He decided to contact HQ first and tell them that he was alright. "This is Lieutenant Lyon, come in HQ." After waiting for a few seconds he tried again. "HQ do you read me." There was only static coming from his ear plug, it was like the Temporal Defense Corps HeadQuarters didn't exist. He kept on trying to make contact with headquarters for ten more minutes then decided to give it up.

He could not understand it, there was no way that headquarters could just disappear. Even if he went back as far as the age of the dinosaurs he should still have been able to contact headquarters. From his surroundings, it was obvious that he didn't go back in time that far, maybe around the year 2000 give or take 30 years. So he should be able to contact HQ, either something was wrong with his equipment or there was no headquarters to contact. Either way was very bad, but he preferred the first, that way he still had a chance of getting home. It would be just a matter of looking out for other TDC agents.

His musings was suddenly interrupted by the sound of footsteps, he turned towards the noise, the entrance to the alley, and found himself looking at what looked to be a gang of bikers from their clothes. He reached for his gun but realized that he'd dropped it when one of the gang members picked it up. It was a good thing that no one else could use the gun but him.

"Hey look at this fancy looking gun boss," said the guy, holding the gun to the leader of the gang.

"Hmmm... Pretty nice looking gun, feels light for its size though," said the leader. The leader of the gang was tall about six feet, he had black hair and a scarred face. He wore a leather jacket and torn denims. And he held the gun as if he knew how to use it, not that he could though.

Lyon, studied the others, there were ten in all including the leader and the guy that picked up the gun. They all looked like thugs, they obviously had a weird sense of hair color. There were light blue, green, purple, pink, and any other color in a rainbow. They also all have weapons, knives, pipes, and chains. Some of them had what looked like bionic implants, on their arms, legs and even faces. Deciding that they were no treat to him, he spoke out.

"Better give that to me before you hurt yourself." Lyon was wearing full combat gear, so he wasn't really worried if they decided to attack him if they got mad.

"It's you that's gonna hurt, buddy," shouted the guy who picked up the gun. "This is Outriders territory, and this alley is ours. Right, Boss."

"That's right, little fella, you're gonna get hurt if you don't hand over everything you have right now."

"Oh, I don't think so." Lyon quickly got in to a martial arts stance that was best for dealing with multiple opponents.

"Boss! what if he's a boomer." Lyon head a guy in the back say quietly. Something about that and the name of the gang got his attention.

"He's not a boomer, he's just some punk playing dress up," said their leader, "Get him!!!" Then they rushed Lyon.

When the closest of the thugs were about half way to Lyon he bent his legs then jumped the remaining distance between them. What followed were a bunch of thugs flying towards walls, garbage cans and out of the alley and into the streets. A little later the alley was filled with groaning bodies and there were only two figures left standing.

"I told you to give me the gun before you got hurt," Lyon said with what he thought was enough menace in his voice. "I'm telling you again. Give me the gun."

The gang leader's reply was to point the gun at Lyon. "Who.. What are you?" His hand was shaking, he'd just seen his entire gang defeated in under a minute, but he wasn't going to give up. He was stupid. He did the only thing that he could think of, he pulled the trigger.

There was a faint click, the sound of the guns trigger being pulled, then Lyon was in motion. He grabbed the gun out of the gang leader's hand with one hand and shot a palm strike to the guy's chin. The gang lead flew backwards and slammed into a wall.

Lyon was already checking his gun for any damage caused by his rough arrival and journey through an unstable temporal gate. When he was satisfied that nothing was wrong, he put it back to its holster at his waist. He was just about to leave when it came back to him. Boomers and the Outriders. God! he was in Mega Tokyo. He noticed one of the thugs getting up and decided to confirm it and ask what the date.

"You!" He walked towards the guy getting up from the street and picked him up by his shirt. "I have a few questions."

"Any thing! Please don't kill me," begged the scared thug. "I knew he was a boomer." The last was whispered, but Lyon still heard it.

"Nope, I'm not a boomer or a boomeroid."

"Gulp! Okay, your not a boomer."

"Now, I want to know if I'm in Mega Tokyo."

"Y.. Yes, you're in Mega Tokyo."

"Good. What's the date, year?"

"May 16, 2032. Can you let me go now?" asked the guy, sounding pathetic.

"Okay." Lyon replied and then he let go and started walking away while the thug crawled away so as not to be noticed. It was another impossible thing, he was really getting tier of impossible things. If he's right and he was in Mega Tokyo then that would mean that he was in a different dimension. That would also mean that there was no TDC HQ or agents to contact. He was stuck, the chances of getting home was null. But there was a bright side to all of this, he was all ways looking at the bright side of things. He was in one of his favorite anime and the series should only just be beginning. He could watch the Knight Sabers in action, live!, or he could help out. And maybe they'd help him get back to his own universe, Sylia Stingray might be able to help him. As far as helping the Saber go, it would be fun and he would be carrying out TDCs directives. Stop anyone using time machines who were bent on world conquest. Genom might not be using time machines but they were bent on world conquest.

First though, he needed money so he turned around, walked back to the fallen bodies and looted them. He let the one crawling away alone, he'd already given him more important information. He still got around 75 000 yen in cash though, he guessed that they all didn't believe in banks. He also took all their jewelry and watches to pawn of later. He also decided that he didn't want to walk so he grabbed all their keys. When he was out of the alley, he looked for the gang's bikes and found them all parked a few meters away from the alley. The closest bike looked to be the newest, and he always did like bikes built for speed. It was a very slick racing bike, painted black with white go-faster stripes. It should match with his black combat gear very nicely, so he tried the keys he took from the bodies one by one, then dumped the rest when he got it started.

He was riding around, obeying every traffic law he could think of so that the cops won't have any reason to pull him over. Unless of course the Outriders have already gone to the police, but it would really be hard to explain that the guy that you were going to rob robbed you instead.

Suddenly there was a streak of light, at first he thought it was lightning but when he looked the wasn't a cloud in the sky. Then came the explosion, from the looks of it an entire section of Mega Tokyo has just been demolished. He only knew of two instances of a satellite particle beam strike in the entire series. One was in the first episode, the other hit Largo, from the date this was the first one.

****

Later in the basement of the Lady633 building, the Knight Saber were getting out of the Silky Wagon. They were all out of their hardsuits and back to wearing civilian clothes.

"I said I'm fine!" Priss said to Nene, getting angry and brushing of Nene's attempt to help her. "It's nothing serious and Sylia already fixed me up."

"If you say so."

"Did anyone get a good look at that chopper? Was it Genom?" Priss asked no one in particular.

"Yes." said Sylia, answering the second question.

"Some day, I'm going to find a way to make Genom really pay." Priss said, some of her anger going into her voice.

"Speaking about pay, are we still going to get paid or what?" Linna asked Sylia.

"The USSD hired us to get Cynthia back for them, no we won't be paid." Sylia replied.

"Oh well, there goes being rich."

****

Three days latter Lyon was sitting in the small room that he was renting in a motel. He was listening to the news on the TV, it was about what had happened in Aqua City. A USSD official was saying that what happened was an accident and would never happen again. There was no mention of Genom at all, they covered their tracks too well for that.

Lyon shut off the TV and began to think. The money he got from the thugs won't last long. He got around 110 000 yen from the Outriders, the cash plus the pawned items. Minus the money he spent on the motel and clothes. He needs to get a job, because he doubted that the Outriders would kindly give him some more money. To get a job, he needs ID, but getting fake IDs would cost more money than he's willing to part with right now. What he thought of doing, was to approach the Knight Sabers and ask for their help. He doesn't know how he'd do that though.

Another thing that's bothering him was the fact that Irene was going to get killed. He can't decide whether to save her or not. He didn't have it in him to just let her get killed, but it was TDCs policy not to interfere with the time line. On the other hand TDC also doesn't have a rule that prevents someone from interfering with the time line, its just policy. The main objective of TDC was to prevent anyone from using time travel to take over the world, to prevent major disasters, and to stop illegal transport of technology from the future to the past. Still the policy was there for a reason, no one can predict what a change, how ever small, would do to the future. He just couldn't let Irene die though, time to start planning.

A couple of weeks later he was sitting in a coffee shop across the street from the aerobics and martial arts club where Linna worked at. The news about the Genom lab explosion was in the news yesterday, so Lyon decided that it was time to start following Irene and Linna around.

****

A few hours later Irene and Linna were coming out of a restaurant when Linna noticed that her car has been towed. After talking about it, Irene decided that she'll walk home and Linna decided to call someone to pick her up.

As Linna was about to enter a telephone booth a black car came barreling towards her. She jumped out of the way and the car smashed the into booth and kept on going. Linna saw that the car was heading where Irene went to and decided to call Sylia for help.

"Sylia! a car just tried to run me over," Linna contacted Sylia with her watch, a Knight Sabers communications device. "I think it was after Irene." After giving Sylia more detail she started running after the car and Irene. Hoping that she'd get there in time to help.

****

Irene was scared, someone was trying to run her over with a car, to kill her. She was praying that someone had heard her call for help, that someone would save her. She was walking home from lunch in a restaurant with Linna when a black car started chasing her. She knew it was someone from Genom. They want her dead, just like they killed her fiance.

Irene turned into an alley, hopefully the car won't follow her into it. She was wrong, as soon as she started to catch her breath the car that has been chasing her turned into the alley way. She ran to the other end, turned left and went into another alley, trying to at least slow the car down. She was running to the other end of the alley when she felt someone grab her from out of the shadows. She was about to scream when she heard a command.

"Quiet! I won't hurt you. I'm here to help."

Irene felt the hand holding her let go and started to back away. She made sure to observe the figure in the shadows for any sudden movement, ready to run.

Lyon stepped slowly out of the shadows, he knew that a wrong move would scare Irene and she would start running again. He didn't want that, she would be safer with him for now. And he didn't want to chase he by roof hopping again. "Don't worry, remember the Hou Bang? I'm here to help," Lyon said, trying to keep his voice as soft as possible.

At the mention of the Hou Bang Irene started to believe him. She was the granddaughter of the Hou Bang's leader, if this guy was a member then he would not dare to hurt her. She studied him for a moment and started to relax more. He was about 5'5" of medium build, he had straight short black hair and dark brown eyes. He had a friendly face except that she had the feeling that his main attention was elsewhere. He wore black pants, white shirt and a black jacket. All in all she didn't think that looked like a person who would hurt her. She was almost relaxed all the way when she saw the black car stop at the entrance of the alley. A woman stepped out of the driver side door, Irene recognized her as one of the bodyguards of Mason. Then she almost screamed when with a sound of ionized air, first a very thin white streak of light hit the woman then after a second or two, a brighter streak of light hit the woman again. As she watched Mason's bodyguard blow apart. There was no blood, she realized that it was a boomer bodyguard. She turn towards where the white streak that blew apart the boomer came from and saw her savior holing some kind of gun.

"We have to get going. I surprised that one, they might send more after you," Lyon said. And besides that second shot was with the gun on full power, his gun only had four shots per power cell on full power. He only had three power cells for his gun, but he didn't want to tell her that. The first shot was on stun, just in case the woman was human. It had no effect so he set his gun on full and fired again. "Come on, I'll take you somewhere safe."

****

At the Lady633 building, at Sylia's penthouse, Sylia, Priss, Linna, Nene and Mackie were at the living room sitting, drinking coffee or tea and discussing the destroyed boomer and the car that tried to run over Linna and chased after Irene.

"I'm worried about Irene," Linna said. "We don't know if she's safe or if she got away."

"What I want to know is what could have destroyed that boomer," Priss said. "Even if it didn't have that much armor it still doesn't explain what could destroy a boomer that way. Could Irene have destroyed that boomer? Did she have a gun or something?"

"No, I don't think Irene had a gun or anything that could have done that to the boomer," replied Linna.

"I don't think Irene could have had anything to do that to the boomer either," put in Sylia. "Even in our hardsuits we couldn't have caused that much damage, except maybe if we hit it with two or three knuckle bombers at once."

"Do you think it's a new type of boomer could have done it?" Nene asked Sylia, getting worried.

"If there's a new type of boomer capable of doing that then we're going to have to be more careful when fighting boomers." Sylia set her cup down on the coffee table. "But why would Genom send a new type of boomer to interfere with Mason's bodyguard boomer? No, I don't think that a boomer did that."

"I'm still worried about Irene you guys." Linna said again.

"Don't worry Linna," Nene said patting Linna's hand, trying to reassure her. "I'm sure that she's alright."

"Nene's right Linna don't worry about Irene for now, I'm sure that whoever she's with right now is just hiding her somewhere safe." Sylia turned from Linna to Nene and asked, "Did you and Mackie tracked down that truck that left the lab before it exploded?" Then turned to her brother, Mackie. "Mackie is the Silky Wagon ready?"

"Yes."

"It's ready sis."

"Then let's suit up for the mission," said Sylia in a commanding voice, "Linna we'll look for Irene tomorrow after the mission, alright?."

"Yes Sylia, let's go. I want to pay Mason back!" said Linna getting up from the couch.

****

"You should be safe here for now," said Lyon entering his room at the motel. "No one should be able to follow us here." He made sure of that by having them take three cabs to different parts of the city and finally taking a bus and walking the rest of the way to the motel. The fares for the cab took a lot out his remaining money but he was sure it was worth it. "Make yourself comfortable, are you hungry? thirsty?"

"Thank you, no," Irene replied. "Um... you haven't told me your name."

"My name's Lyon and you're Irene Chang not Irene Chan," Lyon hesitated then added, "Um... I gave you the wrong impression back there."

"What?" Irene asked confused.

"I'm not from the Hou Bang," Lyon said. "But, I am here to help you." He added when Irene started looking wary. "Look if I wanted to harm you I would have already, I just didn't want you to keep thinking that I'm from the Hou Bang."

"How do you know my real name if you're not from the Hou Bang? And how do you know about the Hou Bang?" Irene asked still a little wary of Lyon.

"Hmmm... Do you have any way to contact your Grandfather? Can you call him or anyone with the Hou Bang?" Lyon asked avoiding Irene's questions. "You'd be safer with them, I alone, can't protect you that well."

"I can call my grandfather," said Irene. "I talk call him all the time."

"That's good," Lyon said handing Irene the phone, "there's the phone, call and tell your grandfather what happened. Get him to send someone to pick you up. I'll just go out and get us something to eat."

"You're leaving me here alone!" Irene exclaimed.

"Don't worry, I'll be back in less than 10 minutes, there's a diner across the street," Lyon said. "Don't open the door to anyone, I'm going to lock it." With that said Lyon went out and locked the door to his room.

When Lyon got back to his room carrying take out food, Irene was still taking to her grandfather on the vid phone. Her grandfather was an old man, but he looked like he was still fit. From the way they were talking, he could tell that they loved each other very much. When he closed the door he deliberately made a lot of noise to get Irene's attention. Irene turned and waved for him to come into camera range of the phone. He walked towards her, setting the food on the bed, and looked at her grandfather in the eyes.

"Grandfather, this is Mr. Lyon, the one who saved me." Irene introduced Lyon her grandfather. "Mr. Lyon this is Chin Chang, my grandfather, he wants to talk to you."

"First of all I'd like to thank you Mr. Lyon for saving my granddaughter." Mr. Chang said as soon as Irene was finished talking. "I don't want to lose her like I lost her parents."

"You're welcome, but I only did the right thing to do. I couldn't allow her to get killed without trying to save her. And please just call me Lyon."

"Yes, I see," said Mr. Chang with a thoughtful look, studying Lyon's face. "Second, I'd like to meet you in person to thank you appropriately. I'll send a private plane to the nearest airport to pick you and Irene up so you can fly here to the States where I can protect her better. Is that alright with you Lyon?"

Lyon nodded and said, "I don't have an ID or a passport, I assume that you can take care of that? Good, the farther your granddaughter is from Mason the better."

"Mason?" asked Mr. Chang his eyes becoming more alert.

"Yeah, Brian J. Mason an executive of Genom, he's probably the one who ordered her assassination, it was his bodyguard that tried to kill her." Lyon looked at Mr. Chang's alert eyes, "Don't worry sir, Irene will not be in danger for more than a few months. Mason should be dead by then." This Lyon said with his voice full of conviction. "I'll even make sure of it personally if necessary." At this statement Irene gasped and Mr. Chang looked at Lyon more closely.

"I take it that you don't like Mason?" It was more of a statement than a question. "You implied that someone else wants Mason killed." Mr. Chang prompted Lyon to explain.

Lyon smiled and nodded. "Mason has been causing a lot of trouble, if the Knight Sabers don't get him, then Quincy will."

"Oh?"

"The Knight Sabers?" Irene asked interested, she'd joked about getting the Sabers to avenge her with Linna if something happened to her.

Lyon smiled some more. "The Knight Sabers don't like people getting killed and if Mason continues to do business the way he's doing right now he's going to push them to far." Lyon explained to Irene and Mr. Chang. "And as for Quincy, Mason is planning to over throw him."

"Hmmm... You've given me a lot to think about." Mr. Chang said thoughtfully. "I'm sure you two needs some rest, so I'll see you tomorrow. The plane will be at the airport at 9:00 pm, get some rest, Kou will pick you up and bring you to the air port when the plane arrives. Until tomorrow then, good bye."

"You should eat first and then take a nap on the bed, you have a couple of hours." Lyon handed Irene some take out and chopsticks. He took some for himself, sat then preceded to eat.

"What about you?" asked Irene before starting to eat.

Lyon pause from eating, "I'll be standing watch just in case. I'll sleep on the plane."

****

In Sylia's penthouse later that night, the Knight Sabers were discussing their latest mission.

"I guess we're not going to get paid again, huh?" asked Linna to no one in particular. "But that should teach Mason a lesson, I just wish we could do more to him. I hope that Irene's okay."

"I'm sure that Irene is fine, Linna," said Nene.

"How can you be so sure that she's fine?!" asked Linna. "She could be dead or someone could be holding her captive."

"Calm down Linna," said Sylia. "First she's not dead or you and Priss would have found her body instead of the boomer's. Second if she is being held captive by someone we'll look for and rescue her."

"Yeah, we'll make whoever has her pay!" puts in Priss.

The Knight Sabers went back to discussing their recent mission, pointing out what they did wrong, what they did right and what changes could have been done. This went on for about an hour then they all said their goodbyes, agreed to meet next day to start looking for Irene and went to their respective homes.

****

"It's good to meet the man who saved my granddaughter's life in person," said Mr. Chang shaking Lyon's hand from across the table.

"It's nice to meet you too, sir," Lyon said. They were in Mr. Chang's office at the Chang Family Estate. The office was decorated in what looked to be a mixture of Oriental and European style. The office looked to be tailored to Mr. Chang perfectly. The only other people in the room were Kou and Irene. Irene was seated on a chair on the side of the desk and Kou was standing behind and to the right of Mr. Chang.

"Please sit," Mr. Chang waved to the chair in front of the desk. "I trust that you've rested after your flight? Good, we have some things to discuss. First I'd like to reward you for saving Irene's life, ask anything and I'll see if I can provide it."

"Thank you, yes I do need something," said Lyon. "I said earlier that I didn't have any identification. If you could arrange to have someone make me an ID, drivers license, birth certificate, passports and any other document necessary to provide me with a background."

"I can certainly provide that, but is that all you require?" said Mr. Chang with a frown.

"Yes I'm sure that is all I need," replied Lyon. "With those I should be able to get a job and find some place to live in Mega Tokyo."

"Hmmm... I'll provide you with a place to live, Chang Conglomerate owns a hotel in Mega Tokyo. Now to the second item I wanted to discuss. Are you sure that it is only Mason that threatens my granddaughter?"

"Reasonably certain, yes," Lyon replied. "Besides by now Genom should know that Irene is your granddaughter, Quincy isn't about to start a war between the Hou Bang and Genom."

"Yes, I see," Mr. Chang nodded. "Third and last, I would like to offer to make you a member of the Chang Family. If you accept, you can ask for help from any one in the Hou Bang, should you require it. I think that you are involve in something dangerous and might need help sometime in the future." He looked at Lyon intently, then continued when Lyon remained silent. "Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you what you're up to. I get the feeling, though, that Genom is not going to like it."

"I'd like to thank again for saving my life, Lyon," said Irene standing up with Mr. Chang.

Lyon nodded and also stood up.

"Kou will take you to see Tseng Sung, he should be able to give you what you need. Kou, I want you to give Lyon one of the private rooms in the hotel and open an account for him in a bank in Mega Tokyo, 2 million yen. It's the least that we could do for you."

****

"This makes for the third boomer rampage this week! How come there are so many boomers going berserk all of a sudden?" Linna heard Nene say from her seat inside the Silky Wagon. They were headed to a boomer rampage, and as Nene said it was the third time this week. Not only that but every incident involved more than one boomer. The boomers were causing a lot of property damage and lost of life. Boomer incidents were becoming more frequent all of a sudden. The police have gone so far a deploy their own hard suits, the K-11s, but it still wasn't enough. The Knight Saber have had to go out and help them.

But Linna mind is not entirely focused on their upcoming battle with boomers. She was still thinking about Irene. Sylia and Nene have been working hard trying to find her, but it seems like she just disappeared. None of Sylia's contacts can find her and Nene can't find her through the Net. Linna was getting really worried despite Sylia's and Nene's reassurance. She starting to think that Irene might already be dead.

"One minute Sis." She heard Mackie say. She brought her thoughts back to the mission at hand. According to the ADP, there were five BU-55Cs that went berserk, the AD Police should just be getting there and setting up a perimeter before they move in. Hopefully they'll get there before anyone gets killed. The back door of the Silky Wagon opened signaling that they were close to the action. A few minutes later Linna jumped out of the Silky Wagon following Sylia, firing her heel jets to control her fall. On the streets Sylia and Linna jumped onto a roof top followed by Priss and Nene. They were observing the boomers who seem to be intents on doing a lot of property damage to the surrounding area. Two boomers were firing at a restaurant, another two were causing havoc inside a store and the last was wrecking parked cars. It was a good thing that the area was evacuated quickly.

"Sylia, the ADP has just finished setting up a perimeter to protect the civilians, they're getting ready to move in." Nene was keeping tabs on ADP activities. They would be able to help them better if they knew what the police were doing.

"Alright, Nene start jamming the boomers in 15 seconds, Linna stay close to Nene after we've engaged the boomers. Priss you and I will attack the boomers head on." With Sylia's signal all of them leapt off the roof and attacked the boomers.

The boomers, alerted by their sensors, all turned to watch the Sabers land on the streets. They abandoned what they were doing and were about to engaged the Knight Sabers as a team when Nene's jamming started.

"Priss and I will take the ones out on the street, Linna, you and Nene take care of the two in the store." The Knight Sabers used the momentary confusion, caused by Nene's jamming, of the boomers to their advantage. The boomer that was wrecking the cars went down quickly, Priss took it down with a knuckle bomber while it was still suffering from the surprise of suddenly being jammed. That left one each for Sylia and Priss, but by that time the boomers were already back to normal. They just couldn't work together.

While Sylia and Priss were fighting the boomers in the street, Linna and Nene approached the two boomers coming out of the store carefully. Linna was not engaging them on a head on battle because she had to protect Nene and Nene had to keep jamming and study different sensors data.

Linna and Nene quickly fired their lasers at the boomers to keep them pinned down. Unfortunately their lasers only served to slow the boomers' advance towards them a little bit. When the boomers were half way to their position, Linna jumped forward, hoping to engage both boomers. The did not agree with her idea though. She engaged the boomer on the right, shooting it with her laser and moving around it and dodging its attacks to get better chance to use her monomolecular ribbons. But the boomer on the left ignored her and went after Nene, whom it perceived as an easier target.

Nene saw Linna run forward and start fighting one of the boomers, that left the other boomer to her. She kept firing her only weapon, a laser, at it but the boomer either dodge or when hit there was little effect. She was getting worried, she could probably take it on, but she'd have to drop her jamming, ECM and ECCM. Nene started to back away, hoping that one of the others finishes with their opponents quickly to be able to help her.

The boomer was almost on her when a white streak came from above, hit the boomer on the chest and threw the boomer back a couple of meters. The boomer's chest was damaged to the point where its heat cannon was useless, but it still got up slowly to fight. The boomer was up and looking towards origin of the shot when Nene noticed a communications signal flashing on her HUD. She keyed her computer to receive and started to look up towards the source of the shot.

"..me in Pink Saber. Need a little help?"

"Yes." Nene saw a guy wearing a helmet that covered his whole head, body armor with leg and some sort of skin tight full body suit, jump from a roof to her side. He also had some type of gun in his hand. "Who are you?"

"Call me Maverick," Lyon tapped the top front of his helmet where the name was engraved with one hand and aiming his gun at the boomer with the other.

Nene saw another streak of energy hit the boomer, this one taking its head off. As the boomer fell to the ground she turned back to look at Maverick. "What are you? That can't be a hardsuit you're wearing."

"No its not a hardsuit. Can you tell Green Saber to back off from the boomer." Lyon took aim at the boomer Linna was fighting, waited for her to get receive Nene's message and get out of the line of fire.

Linna having received a message from Nene that the other boomer was down and to back of a little did so. She saw a streak of light hit the boomer, it goes down. She took advantage of the situation and leapt forward, snapping her head, her ribbons flew out and sliced the boomer's head off. She looked to make sure that it was dead, turned towards Nene and saw her standing with a guy. He was wearing some kind of armor but there was no doubt he was a guy. The skin tight suit he was wearing didn't do anything to hide the fact after all.

"Who is he, Nene?" asked Linna.

"He said to call him Maverick. Here I'll patch you in, um, remember not to use our names. Use Green Saber, Pink Saber and so on, that's what he's calling us." Just then Sylia and Priss arrived and Nene repeated the same to them.

While Sylia was listening to Nene she studied their uninvited guest. He showed up as completely human to her scanners, what interested her though was that he did not show up on any radar. Her radar should at least be able to pick up his armor, obviously it was made of radar absorbing materials that she did not know about. She was also interested in his gun, it couldn't be an ordinary gun she saw the last shot and didn't know what kind of projectile he was using. She wondered what technology was involved in making it.

"Nice to meet you Green Saber, Blue Saber, Saber Prime." Lyon nodded to each of them and turned to Nene. "Could we talk on a secure channel?"

"Okay, first let me reassure you ladies that I am neither a boomer or a boomeroid," Lyon said when they were on a secure channel. "Second, Irene is safe."

"Irene? What do you know about Irene? She's safe?" Linna stepped forward from the rest of the Knight Sabers.

"Yes she's safe. Her family is hiding her right now. And I was the one that saved her." Lyon noticed that the ADP were closing in on the area. "I have to go, the police are here. I'm sure you do too, see you around. We could sing or dance or have ice cream together sometime." He jumped to a roof before they could react, then he was gone.

****

Lyon checked his sensors to see if anyone was near him, then jumped into his balcony when he saw that the coast was clear. Today was the first time he met the Knight Sabers out on a mission, he'd met Linna before in her club and seen all of them except for Sylia at Hot Legs. This won't be the last time he'd be seeing them fighting boomers, with boomer incidents rising he'd be seeing them a lot.

Lyon opened the balcony doors and went in. As he made his way into the kitchen for something to eat he got out of his armor, hopefully there won't be anymore rampaging boomers today. He also replaced the clip on his gun with a fully charged clip from his belt, put his gun on the coffee table. He only had three clips, but they were self recharging, it takes about three days to fully charge one clip when it was empty. He decided early on, before he actively went out and sought rampaging boomers that he could not afford to use his gun on full power, because he'd only get four shots out of each clip. Fortunately one setting below does quiet well. Not only does he get 40 shots out of each clip, each shot was could also drop a boomer, if he aimed for the head that is. He won't be able to kill a boomer in one shot anymore unless he shoots them in the head, but it gets the job done. He had his clips on rotation now, so every time he went out he had a fully charged clip in his gun.

He was already out of his combat gear and in the kitchen preparing a sandwich and thinking about what had been happening since his meeting with Mr. Chang. Kou and Tseng Sung helped him decide on an identity, then made it for him. He was now registered as Richard D. Lyon, there was no reason not to use his real name, well except for the D part. A day after that Kou helped him get settled in the hotel in Mega Tokyo, then went back to the States saying to contact the Hou Bang if he needed anything. The first week was fine, there was only one boomer rampage that he had to stop and it was only a construction boomer. But after that the boomers started rampaging twice then three times a week, then came the BU-55Cs. It's the third week now.

This was the first time that he showed himself to anyone, he'd just stayed in the shadows and sniped at the boomers until now. He found that it worked very well against boomers. They couldn't see him and they didn't know that they were being targeted until they got hit. The reason for that, he thought, was because he was manually targeting the boomers. He didn't have any targeting systems on his helmet, so the boomers won't be alerted that someone had a target lock on them. And he also always put his sensors and radar on passive when going in combat. He also kept moving after each shot so that boomers won't get a visual lock on him.

He came out of the shadows today because he wanted to meet the Knight Sabers. He wanted them to know that he existed and to get Sylia's attention. Hopefully, she'll investigate, get a lot more interested and approach him herself. That way she won't get suspicious of him or his motives. And that parting remark from him should get all of their attention. He wondered if they were talking about it right now. He bit into his sandwich and smiled.

****

The Knight Sabers were all in Sylia's living room, their post combat discussion done. They were now talking about the mysterious Maverick.

"Sylia, do you really think that he knows who we are?" Nene took a bite of a cracker. "I mean, you heard what he said, sing, dance and ice cream. Priss sings, Linna dances and I like ice cream."

"Speaking of ice creams, I think you've gained weight from eating too much of it." Priss teased Nene.

"I'm serious, Priss!" Nene said, blushing. "So what do you think, Sylia?"

"It could have been a chance remark," Sylia began. "But I highly doubt so. As you said Nene, each one has something to do with one of you."

"But he didn't say anything that's tied to you, Sylia." Linna frowned, she too thought that he knew who they were. "What I really want to know is if he was telling the truth about Irene."

"We can't trust what he says until we know more about him." Sylia looked each one of them, stopping at Nene. "Nene tell us again what you saw, and what he said when he showed up."

Nene told them everything she could remember of her encounter with Maverick.

"Hmmm... Yes I didn't see him use anything to jump to the roof top. No jets or any kind of boosters. He said he wasn't a boomer or a boomeroid. Even boomers can't jump that high without using their boosters." Sylia sighed. "There's a lot that we don't know for sure. Until we know more we'll treat him as a neutral. As for Irene we'll ask what he knows about her if we meet him again."

"Sylia! I think that he's the one that ADP has been getting reports about." Nene reached for a cake, but decided against it. "ADP has been getting reports from witnesses about streaks of light hitting boomers from out of no where for weeks now. When ADP arrived at the scene the boomers are either dead or severely damaged."

"Interesting, I want you to get everything ADP has on him tomorrow, Nene," said Sylia.

****

Lyon entered the martial arts section of the club where Linna worked. He was there to practice katas and to spend some time getting to know Linna. Between the two his priority was the second. He could practice better at the hotel in his rooms, there was enough space for him to do his most difficult katas, but in public he had to hold back or people would think he wasn't human or a boomeroid. So he kept his katas at reasonable level. He just wished he had some place to practice his ki blast where he wouldn't attract attention. Not that he had much of a ki blast, the more reason why he needed a place to practice. The last time he tried he could only barely manage a ki blast, it took him a long time to set up and by the end he could barely move. There was no place in the city he was comfortable enough to practice his ki blast though.

Linna greeted him while he was coming out of the men's changing room. "Hi Richard!"

"Linna, I told you, it's Lyon or Rick, I don't like being called Richard." Lyon sighed, he should never have told her that he didn't like his given name. Even his call sign would be better, Mave"Rick", but he couldn't tell her that, yet.

"So do you want to spar again?" Linna asked.

"Yes, after I do my warm ups," said Lyon.

Lyon liked practicing here because they were the only ones who used the dojo at one hour before lunch. The dojo also had more room to move around in than his suit.

Linna watched Lyon as he immersed himself in one of his katas. She was doing a kata of her own, but it was no where nearly as difficult as his. She still wondered at how skilled he was. They have been practicing together for a week now and she's been feeling that he was holding back a lot more than he says. She watched him flow from attack to defense, from punch to kick to block. As usual she tried to keep track of the different schools he was using, kempo, tai chi, judo, karate, kung fu and a bunch of others. She sighed, she wished she could be that good. She sighed again and continued to watch, trying to memorize every new move that she saw.

"Okay! I'm done warming up!"

Linna got attention back to Lyon, he preferred Lyon to either Rick or Richard. "Okay, I'm ready," she said walking to the center of the room and going into a defensive stance.

Lyon seeing that Linna was in a defensive stance started the sparring by attacking. He probed her defenses, letting her know where the holes are by attacking them lightly. She was improving, every sparring match they have he had to up his level a bit to get through her defense. Of course she might not notice that she was improving if she didn't spar with anyone else regularly. On some signal between them he switched to defense as she suddenly lunched into the attack. Linna has been picking up some of his attacks too. The combination attack she just did was simple but he'd made it to be efficient. He saw some other moves that he had used on their other sparring matches.

They went on like that for about 30 minutes, back and forth and all over the room. When Lyon saw that Linna was starting to get too tired, he ended the match like he always did. He used a combination move that she hasn't seen before. He'd be willing to bet that she would remember it and copy it on another sparring match.

"That was a good match, Linna." Lyon dropped his stance. "Thanks."

Linna looked at Lyon as she was getting up. He didn't even seem to be sweating, another indication that he was holding back a lot. She was grateful though, ever since she started sparring with him her scores in Sylia's test were going up.

"Welcome." She looked around to see if anyone was around. "Ah.. Are you doing anything tonight?"

"No why."

"I was wondering if you'd like to go out." She'd just dumped Patrick, a couple of days ago and hasn't been out with a guy since. "You know maybe have some dinner."

Lyon thought about it, "Sure, I'd like to," he said with a smile. "I don't know any place to go to so you'll have to pick."

"Great! I know this great place where they serve the best food."

"Is it okay if I meet you there?" Lyon asked.

"That's fine."

****

"Sure Priss! we'll be there!" They were in the private elevator to Sylia's penthouse. "Linna and I always loved to hear you sing." Nene walked out of the elevator as it opened.

"Sorry you guys but I'm meeting someone for dinner tonight." Linna followed Nene out. "But I'll see if I can convince him to go to Hot Legs after."

"I thought you broke up with... Patrick? was it. It's so hard to keep track," Nene teased Linna. "Don't tell me you have a new man already?"

"Yeah, Linna you go through men like Nene goes through cakes and ice cream." Priss followed them into the living room, sitting on the couch.

"Hey!" Nene and Linna yelled as Priss laughed.

Nene frowned at Priss until she stopped laughing. "So who is he? Is he nice? Is he handsome? Can I meet him?" Nene asked Linna.

"His name is Lyon, no Priss not Leon, Lyon. Richard Lyon. Yes. Yes. And I saw him first." The last Linna said to Nene with a glare. "Besides I don't think he's interested, we're only going for dinner. I'm hoping to find out more about him over dinner."

"How long have you known him anyway?" asked Priss.

"About a week and a half." Linna looked up, and saw Sylia enter the room. "He come to the club to practice martial arts, he's very good. He only stays for about an hour, he does katas and spars with me if I'm there then leaves." Linna turns to Sylia. "You noticed that my scores are going up on the holo-simulator, right? I've been improving since I've been sparring with him. Maybe we could get him to train all of us."

"I'll think about it," said Sylia.

"What's this meeting about anyway? Do we have a job?" asked Priss.

"No, this is about Maverick." Sylia went to her computer and brought up an image of Maverick about to shoot a boomer. "This is from my suit, I got a good look at him as he shot the last boomer." She keyed the computer to play in slow motion. "Watch." On the screen the Knight Sabers saw a bullet shaped light come from Maverick's gun. It traveled through the air, pulsing with energy. As it hit the boomer the bullet tore it's armor apart until the bullet ran out of energy. Then the recording started to play again.

"What it this supposed to tell us?" asked Priss.

"That projectile is made out of energy." Sylia looked at the other three young women. "We only see a streak because its moving so fast. To an observer it would look like a stream of energy, like in a particle cannon or laser. This is very different. I don't know anyone who has this kind of technology, not even Genom."

****

A few days later Lyon was on top of a building near Sylia's. He was watching them clean up after a boomer rampage. He didn't get there in time. The boomer was already junk when he arrived at the scene. He decided to watch the Knight Sabers clean up the mess in Sylia's store. He's met all of them except for Sylia a few days ago in Hot Legs after he had dinner with Linna. They all had a good time, he'd danced both with Linna and Nene, unfortunately Priss had to sing. He didn't mind though, he'd rather hear Priss sing than dance with her any time.

A few minutes later he left, thinking of what was coming in the near future. As far as he could remember the Silky Doll was only attacked once by a boomer, that was when Mason pushed the Knight Sabers too far. Mason and the Knight Sabers will be going head to head at Genom tower, he had to prepare for it.

A few days later he made a mistake of not sticking to Priss like he did to Linna and Irene. He should have stuck to her like glue. But he was out patrolling the streets of Mega Tokyo, roof hopping. He did that some times, just go around the city with an ear open to the police band for boomer rampages. He didn't even realized what had happened until he was passing near Genom Tower and saw a truck release Priss and Linna in their hardsuit and on motorcycles. He realized right then that the event that pushed the Sabers was the death of Sho's mother. He didn't have time to be sorry at the time. Right then he was focused on getting to Genom Tower and killing Mason.

At the bottom of the Tower Priss and Linna with their motoslaves transformed were engaging BU-12B in a fight. He decided to give them a little help and set his gun on full power. He didn't fell like holding back right now. As he ran towards the Tower, past a surprised Linna and Priss, he shot the two BU-12Bs that was in his way in the chest. Both boomers didn't have any time to dodge his shot, they were too busy with Priss and Linna. The result was the same as when he shot the bodyguard boomer with full power. Both boomers blew apart as streaks of light hit them. Before all the pieces hit the ground, he was through them and was running up the side of Genom Tower.

The first thing he saw when he reached the top was Nene in trouble with a boomer. He decided to help when it looked like the boomer was about to finish her. He shot at the boomer hoping to distract it, but he forgot that his gun was set on full power. He cursed himself, now he only had one full power shot or ten shots on one setting lower. He set his gun a setting lower, looked around and saw that Mason had Sylia by her neck.

He was about to aim at Mason when he heard him say. "Drop you gun, who... Urg!" And saw Sylia's blade sticking out from Mason's neck.

Sylia dropped Masons body and slowly walked towards Nene, from the way they were acting he could tell that they were talking about something. About him probably. He walked to Mason's body, looked down and shot the head a couple of times. He told himself that it was to prevent anyone from getting Mason's memories to make Largo. But who was he kidding, it was just to pay him back.

When he looked up Linna and Priss where standing with Nene and Sylia not far away looking at him. Priss looked like she wanted to aim her rail gun at him. He opened a com link to Nene.

"Sorry for coming uninvited." He waited to see if they were receiving his signal.

"We want to talk to you Maverick." Probably Sylia, from the cool tone, and the white hardsuited leader or the Saber had stepped forward. "But first let's switch to a secure channel and get to some place more private."

They made their way down the Tower, the Knight Sabers using their jumpjets and Maverick bouncing down the walls of the Tower. At the bottom their truck was waiting for them. They loaded their motoslaves, but didn't go with the truck when it left.

"Follow me." Sylia used her jumpjets to go to the roof tops followed by the other Sabers and Maverick.

After they were some distance away from Genom Tower Sylia stopped and turned to Maverick. "What were you doing at Genom Tower?" she asked.

"I saw you, and followed," Lyon replied. "I mean you don't usually attack Genom Tower so I thought that something was up." That was basically true, he did follow them to Genom Tower.

"I don't believe you," Priss began, then stopped when Sylia held up her hand.

"We'd like to ask you some questions." Sylia stepped towards Maverick, taking time to study him up close.

"You can ask, but I might not answer them. Ask anyway."

"First, about Irene how do..."

"Irene should be fine." Lyon interrupted, looking at Linna. "I'll make a call, then her family should let her out of hiding. With Mason dead there's no reason for her to hide. She's in the States by the way."

"What? How?..." Linna stepped forward but stopped when Sylia held her hand up again.

"Second, what are you?" Sylia asked not really expecting an answer.

"I'm human, if that's what you're asking. I don't have a single ounce of metal attached to me. Technically that's true, I don't think the monomolecular armor under my skin is metal." Lyon murmured, trying to remember what the docs told him when they gave it to him. "Or I could say that I'm a wandering warrior, a ronin maybe."

Sylia noted that he murmured something and told herself to check the recordings later. "Why are you against Genom?"

"Probably the same reason you are. I don't want Genom to take over the world." Lyon turned away from them, walking to the edge of the roof. "I worked for an organization that's against anyone individual or corporation ruling the over everyone." He looked back over his shoulders to Priss. "I'm sorry about Sho's mother, I should have been there. I have to go."

****

Back in his hotel rooms Lyon phoned the number that Kou gave him to contact the Hou Bang. He had to tell them that Mason was dead. He also hoped that he could ask another favor of them. The screen lit up and Kou appeared on the screen.

"Hello Lyon."

"Hi, Kou."

"What can I do for you?" Kou asked.

"Actually I called to say that Irene shouldn't be in danger anymore. Mason is dead."

"Could you wait a minute, Mr. Chang will want to hear what you say." Lyon saw Kou lean forward and press a button. "Mr. Chang, I have Lyon on the line. Yes sir." The screen split vertical down the middle.

"It's a pleasure to see you again Lyon." Mr. Chang motioned and Irene appeared besides him.

"Hi Lyon!" Irene greeted him.

"Kou tells me that Mason is dead. Tell us what happened."

"This morning Mason ordered a house to be torn down. He didn't give the occupants any warning. As a result a woman died, she has a son, a young boy." Lyon tried hard not to let the guilt that he felt for not being there show. "The Knight Sabers finally had enough of him. They attacked Genom Tower and Mason met them in his own hardsuit with some boomers. I was also there, I was hoping to get Mason myself, but the Knight Saber's leader killed Mason before I could."

"Good!" Everyone turned to Irene, her face was a little grim but she was pleased about the news. "I should be able to get back to Mega Tokyo tomorrow then."

"Irene, it's still dangerous here. Even with Mason gone there are still boomer rampages." Lyon thought that it would be best for him if Irene stayed away from Mega Tokyo. She would be able to recognize his gun and it's effect. She would be able to guess who Maverick is easily.

"No! I will go back to Mega Tokyo. I'm tired of hiding and I want to see my friends."

"Two conditions," Mr. Chang said. "Kou will go with you and you will stay at our private family suit, oh! and Lyon will move in with you. The family suit takes up the whole top two floors. It has ten bedrooms, a living room, a full kitchen, five bathrooms and others rooms that no one really needs."

"But Grand... Oh! okay," Irene sighed but she was smiling.

"Um... Mr. Chang?" Lyon began.

"Oh! please say you'll agree Lyon." Irene looked at him with a smile and pleading eyes, who could resist it?

"Sure," Lyon sighed. "Mr. Chang, I have a favor to ask."

"Lyon, I owe you a great debt for saving my granddaughter. Ask."

"It's about the son of the woman who died, could you do something for him? He is so young, I wasn't there for his mother but maybe..."

"Yes, I'll see what can be done."

****

At their headquarters the Knight Sabers has finished putting away their hardsuits and motoslaves. They were now dressed as ordinary, but beautiful women.

"That guy knows who we are!" Priss said. "Or at least who I am. He knew that I knew Sho and his mother there can't be another explanation."

"Yes, I've come to that conclusion myself." Sylia looked at each of them calmly. "Add what he said the last time and I think that he knows everyone of us."

"Sylia! what are we going to do?" asked Nene. "He could expose us to Genom and everyone else."

"I don't think he'd do that Nene." Linna laid a hand on Nene's shoulder to calm her down. "He could have told anyone who we are weeks ago, but he hasn't."

"How do we know that he hasn't?" Nene calmed down a little, seeing that Sylia wasn't worried.

"Linna's probably right," said Sylia. "He is against Genom, but he's alone. He needs all the help he can get. He is probably letting us know that he knows who we are to get us to trust him. He might want our help. But it could also be a trap." Although she couldn't see how it could be a trap. He knows who they were, he probably knows where they live. If he'd wanted them dead he could have attacked when they didn't have their hardsuits. And from what Linna and Priss said earlier, about him blowing apart two BU-12Bs with one shot each his gun is powerful enough to destroy a hardsuit too. His technology seems to be more advanced than theirs and Genom, so he can't be after her father's secrets. If it was a trap, it was a highly elaborate one.

"I wonder what he meant when he said that he was sorry about Sho's mother and that he should have been there." Linna looked at each of her team mates. "I mean he couldn't have know what Mason would do."

****

The next day Kou and Irene were already settled in the family rooms in the hotel. They were sitting in the living room with Lyon, drinking tea.

"So what are your plans for tomorrow, Irene?" Lyon took a sip from his cup.

"I decided to go to the club Linna works at." Irene put down her cup and turned to Lyon. "She needs to know that I'm alright. She was with me just before I was attacked."

Not good. "Yeah, she does. But don't tell her I'm the one who saved you. Tell her it was a guy called Maverick." There's no point in trying to hide it from them, they'll figure it out anyway. Or Kou might already know. Well they won't know the name I use, but Irene could recognize his gun's effect if she saw it in the new. And some people actually had footage of him shooting boomers from the shadows. And besides it was time to tell them more about himself, they were almost family now.

Kou stood up and went towards a window. "So you're actively going out and looking for rampaging boomers?" When Lyon said nothing he looked at Irene, then back. "How long? The media hasn't known about you for a long time. They've only started reporting about mysterious streaks of light striking down boomers."

Lyon drained his cup, buying time to think. "I guess I started when I saved Irene." He looked at her then Kou then back. "You see, I knew that she was going to be targeted." He paused to take a deep breath. "I also knew that she would die if I didn't interfere." He heard Irene gasped, but continued before one of them could interrupt. "I followed Linna knowing that they would attack you just after you left her outside that restaurant. You know you guys never asked me how I knew about your connection to the Hou Bang Irene."

"No we haven't," said Kou looking at Lyon intently. "Mr. Chang felt that you wouldn't tell and he didn't want to make you."

"You wouldn't have believed my explanation anyway." Lyon got up and began to pace. "Kou, you've seen my equipment haven't you? You inspected them when I met Mr. Chang." Kou nodded. "Have you seen anything like it?"

Kou looked thoughtful before answering. "Can I see them again?" he asked.

Lyon went into his room and walked back carrying a duffle bag. He dropped it on the table, opened the bag and started taking out his combat gear. "I wasn't wearing any of this when I saved you Irene."

Kou looked at the gear on the table. A helmet with Maverick written on its forehead and an antenna on each side. It had a rectangular visor about three centimeters wide and a front piece to cover the rest of the face. A body armor that would cover a person from waist to neck. It looked like an ordinary body armor but he was willing to bet that it wasn't. There was also what looked like a skin tight suit for the whole body. Last were arm guards that fit from wrist to elbow, a pair of gloves with knuckle guards, leg guards from ankle to knees and a pair of boots. Then there was Lyon's gun and something that looked like a sword hilt. They were all black, it spoke of gear that was meant for stealth. "Yes, I've seen light combat armor before, but I don't think this is light combat armor. I haven't seen anything like that suit though." Kou turned to Lyon with a questioning look.

"It is light combat armor," said Lyon looking back at Kou. "It's a light armor that can probably take a hit from a boomer's particle beam cannon. The suit could probably take glancing blows."

"I don't understand," said Irene looking confused, light armor that can take a hit from a particle beam cannon?

"This is what light armor is where I come from. If I had heavy armor I could probably take on an army of boomers by myself. You see all my equipment is from technology that is way ahead of this world's current technology." Then he preceded to tell them about TDC, the mission he was on and how he ended up in this world.

"So you're from another world?" asked Irene, not really believing it yet. She looked to Kou but he remained silent. "How do you know about me and the Hou Bang, if you're from another world?"

"Ah.. you.. see.. um.." Lyon looked back and forth from them. "There's an anime where I come from called Bubblegum Crisis..." He told them what an anime was and told them what he could remember of the series. He didn't reveal to them the Knight Saber's name, he referred to them by their colors. By the end of it he could see that they were convinced.

"So, can you tell who the Knight Sabers are?" asked Irene.

"Why?"

"Well... I want to ask them if I can join the Knight Sabers."

"What?!" yelled Kou and Lyon. They looked at each other then turned back to Irene. "Why do you want to join the Knight Sabers?" Lyon asked.

"I want to be able to get back at Genom some how." Irene said with some heat. "The Knight Sabers seem to be the only one that can do that before you came. And you only have one set of combat gear. So will you tell me who the Knight Sabers are?"

"I'll think about it," Lyon said.

****

The next day Lyon, Irene and Kou went to Linna's club at the same time. Irene had convinced them that it would be good for her to learn martial arts. Lyon had to agree, it would be better if she knew how to defend herself.

At the change rooms Kou stayed outside the ladies' change room and waited for Lyon to get out from the men's change room before going in to change him self. It seem that Mr. Chang assigned Kou to be Irene's bodyguard and he's taking it way too seriously, thought Lyon. Irene shouldn't be in any danger now that Mason was dead.

Irene went out of the change room wearing a woman's aerobics uniform. Very short shorts and a tight T-shirt. "So will this do for exercise?" She turned in a full circle, smiling at the way Lyon looked at her.

"Um.. Yeah." The men's change room door opened and Kou walked out. To Lyon it looked like he stopped to stare at Irene for a quick moment but it was so fast that no one else could have noticed it. They walked to the dojo, Lyon in front, Irene and Kou behind him with Kou one step behind Irene.

"Hey Lyon!" Linna saw and waved Lyon over. "Come for another sparring..." Then she saw who was behind him and ran past him. "Irene!" Linna hugged her then stepped back. "I'm sorry. You're safe, I thought they got you or killed you!."

Before Irene could say anything Lyon said. "We're attracting attention." He motioned to the people looking at them. "Let's go into the dojo first."

"I'm so glad that you're safe. I would have hired the Knight Sabers if anything happened to you know. Just like you asked me to." Linna said with a laugh when they entered the dojo. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"Yes," Irene replied and began telling her how she was chased by the black car, how a guy named Maverick stopped her in an alley, that she recognized the driver of the car to be Mason's bodyguard, who turned out to be a boomer and how Maverick saved her from the boomer. She left out any mention of the Hou Bang and Lyon. But she did tell Linna that Lyon was a friend of her family when Linna asked how she knew him. She also told Linna that Kou was a friend of hers which Linna took as "boy"friend.

Lyon and Kou left them alone and went to the other side of the dojo to practice their katas. They studied each other's style, looking for weaknesses and strengths. They both stopped when the ladies walked towards them.

"So ready to learn?" Lyon asked Irene.

"Yes sensei," answered Irene with a giggle.

"Lyon why didn't you tell me that you knew Irene?" Linna asked Lyon.

"Um.. because I didn't know that you knew Irene?" Lyon lied.

"Oh! yeah, right. So you're teaching Irene martial arts, care to have another pupil?"

"Sure, let me just show Irene some basic stretches and I'll teach you a kata. Warm up first." He showed Irene some stretches and simple punches end kicks then showed Linna a kata until she could do it by herself. Lyon watched the two girls for a while, correcting their mistakes and giving tips on how to improve.

He told Linna and Irene to continue practicing and went to where Kou had resumed his kata while he was busy with them. "Do you want to spar? I need a good work out."

Kou stopped his kata and nodded.

Lyon faced off against Kou, he studied Kou's stance, looking for holes. He knew that Kou was doing the same. Kou's stance was solid, not many openings but there were some or those could be left open on purpose, just like he left openings in his own defense. Lyon started circling slowly to the left, waiting for the right moment to attack. Kou matched him, also moving to his left.

Irene and Linna's attention were drawn to the two fighters as soon as they faced off. Linna soon stopped her kata and Irene also stopped. They waited patiently as the two fighters started circling each other.

Then as if by some signal that only they could see, Lyon and Kou met in the middle of their circle with a flurry of punches, kicks, and blocks. Kou used mostly kempo, judo and aikido, but Lyon also knew those three and more.

Lyon blocked a punch and the one following it, he countered with a sweep kick but Kou jumped over it. He went straight to a round house kick which Kou blocked again. He had to admit that Kou was very good, better than Linna. He was already reaching the limit of the level of skill he'd decided to show.

Kou was having a hard time blocking and avoiding all of Lyon's attacks, but he was pleased to see that he was correct in guessing that Lyon was very good from the way he moved. He stepped aside and blocked a round house kick and countered with a spinning back hand.

Linna watched as Lyon blocked a spinning back hand then grabbed and pulled it with the same hand, causing Kou to flip over him. Kou rolled to the side, got up and they were fight again. The fight lasted for another ten minutes, the fighters trading blow after blow.

Then by mutual consent, Kou and Lyon separated and bowed to each other. Kou was sweating and breathing heavily, obviously tired from the match. Lyon however was only slightly tired but he was also sweating, though only a little.

"You were holding back." Kou walked to get a towel off to the side. He turned back to Lyon, wiping sweat off. "I don't know how much, but you were holding back." There was no accusation in his voice, only curiosity.

"I always hold back," Lyon said also getting a towel. He turned to the girls and said, "Linna get back to your kata." Then walked towards Irene to show her a basic kata.

****

Leon was in his patrol car when he received a call to investigate a boomer rampage. They told him that the closest to the incident other than him was ten minutes away, they told him to wait for back up if necessary. He arrived at the scene in three minutes. He immediately saw two 55C boomers destroying everything in sight in the middle of the streets. He swore and wished that Genom would stop making those things.

He skidded to a stop and called in the situation before getting out of his car. He pulled out his gun and crouched low, using his car for cover. About six minutes before back up arrives. He took a deep breath, stood up and fired three shots at the closer boomer. Two hit it in the chest and bounced off, the third hit it in an eye, damaging it. It only served to enrage the boomers and draw attention to himself.

Leon took a couple more shots at the boomer damaging it some more and emptying his clip. He ducked back down and felt his the air around him heat up from a particle beam that passed where his head used to be. He was hoping that the Knight Sabers would show up as he reloaded his gun. Or maybe whoever it was that shoots boomers from the shadows would start shooting any minute now, thought Leon. He stood up again and shot at the boomers trying to keep them back. He himself hasn't seen the guy in action, he wasn't even sure if he was a guy. The guys at ADP only assumed it was a guy since the Sabers were all women. Leon didn't understand their logic but he was willing to go along with them.

Lyon landed on a roof top one building away from the fight. He saw a guy behind a police car holding off two 55C boomers with a gun. Hmmm... dark hair, wears tinted shades, crazy as hell to be facing two boomers with only a gun, must be Inspector Leon McNichol, Lyon thought.

The boomers were getting close to Leon so Lyon decided to give them another distraction. Lyon fired a shot then leapt to another shadowy spot, fired again then changed position again. But Leon kept on firing at the boomers, so when they couldn't find where the new threat came from they decided to deal with the one they could see.

Lyon saw that the boomers were still concentrating on Leon. Damn! He had to get them away from Leon and shooting at them wasn't working. What the heck, Lyon thought, he was tired of always staying in the shadows anyways. He jumped towards one boomer and hit it with a fly kick to the head, he used the kick to bounce to the other boomer. He hit the boomer with both feet and bounced again and landed close to it as it fell down from the force of his kick. As he landed he aimed his gun and shot it on the head at point black range.

The other boomer was just turning around after recovering from the kick it received from Lyon when it received two shot from Lyon's gun. One on the chest then on the head.

As the last of the boomers fell down Leon stood up and walked around his car towards his rescuer. He was wearing what looked to be some kind of light armor over a skin tight suit, attached to his waist were his gun, two clips of ammo or what looked to be clips of ammo, and a cylindrical object about one foot in length. Leon couldn't think of what that might be. He looked up and saw "Maverick" written across his helmet. "Is Maverick a call sign or your name?" he asked gesturing.

"My call sign. You know that you're crazy going against those boomers with only a gun." Lyon replied through his helmet speakers, gesturing where the boomers were.

"You didn't seem to have a problem," said Leon looking closely at the gun that can deal the kind of damage that he'd seen it could. He wanted one, heck he wanted one for every ADP personal.

"My gun is special, one of a kind. Aren't you going to try to arrest me?" asked Lyon.

"Would you come peacefully or do I have to use force?" asked Leon with a smile.

"I won't come at all."

"That's what I figured," Leon mumbled under his breath but Lyon still heard it.

"Well, if that's all Inspector McNichol, I better be on my way. Others aren't as understanding as you are." As Lyon bounded away he shouted through his helmet speakers. "Next time Leon, wait for back up!"

****

The next day at the ADP headquarters after Leon handed in his report about the incident, Chief Todo scanned the report and looked up to Leon. "So we know what he looks like now." The chief tapped a photograph taken from a security camera's recording of the street where the incident occurred. "Good thing that you noticed that there was a camera recording the fight. I take it that you handled him like you do the Knight Sabers, you let him go?" At Leon's nodded he continued. "You some of the higher ups will rave that you didn't even try to arrest him."

"Yes sir," answered Leon. "One thing I didn't put in the report though sir, is that he called me by name. And I didn't have my badge on."

"He could have seen you in the news. You have been in the news once in a while."

"Yes but... "

"No. Leave it at that. Dismissed."

"Yes sir." Leon walked out of the chief's office and met Daley a few meters away.

"Hello Leon-chan, what did the chief want with you this time?" Daley asked him as they walked towards Leon's desk.

"I gave him my report on yesterday's incident."

"Yeah, I heard you took on two 55C boomers by yourself without a K-11 suit and you won. Good job! partner." Daley looked at Leon waiting for an explanation.

"That's because I had a little help."

"Ah! your girlfriends show up and saved you."

Leon ignored the girlfriends crack. "No, the Knight Sabers didn't show up. Maverick did."

"Boyfriend?! But Leon-chan you know that I'm the only one for you!" Daley acted jealous.

"No! Not a boyfriend, will you quit it Daley!" said Leon getting irritated, his voice rising.

"Leon what's this about a boy friend?" asked Nene. She was on her way to her desk when she heard and decided to tease Leon some more. "Priss won't like you two timing her with a guy."

Leon glared at Nene then switched it to Daley. "No, I was just telling Daley about Maverick." Leon and Daley missed Nene's startled expression. "He's the guy we're getting reports about, the one who shots rampaging boomers from the shadows. I met him last night, apparently he's decided to come out in the open." Leon turned back to Nene. "Can you do me a favor? Can you look around the net for any information on him? Maybe he's a mercenary."

That was the first thing Sylia had Nene do after their first encounter with him. So far she still couldn't find any info on him. "I don't know Leon, I'm kinda busy."

"I have a couple of coupons to that ice cream place that you like so much." Leon took out the coupons that he got from the place before he went to work.

"Deal! I'll see what I can find!" Nene grabbed the coupons and went to her desk.

"How much did that cost you?" asked Daley.

"I have a deal with the owner, I advertise for him through Nene and he give the coupons to me for free."

****

In Quincy's office, inside Genom Tower, Madigan was also handing a report on yesterday's boomer rampage to her superior, Quincy. Quincy read the report meticulously, as if searching for hidden facts.

"Interesting." Quincy said at one point and continued reading. "It seems that he finally decided to show himself."

"Sir he has shown himself a couple of time before."

"Yes, yes," Quincy wave a silencing hand. "But this time he showed himself to a police officer. Keep on a watch full eye for him. I want to know who and what he is and who or what produced him."

"Yes sir."

"Get a report on what we do know about him to me by tomorrow."

"Yes sir."

"I want you to find out more about him, do whatever it takes."

"Yes sir. I already have a plan on how to get more information about him. Do I have permission to implement it, sir?"

"I said do whatever it takes. Don't make the same mistakes that Mason did, Madigan. Dismissed." Quincy went back to studying the file on Maverick not bothering to see if Madigan has left or not.

****

A week later, at noon, ten BU-55C boomers went "berserk". The boomers went through a couple of blocks, causing a lot of damage, before they all stopped moving in the middle of a park. The park was part baseball part soccer field, there was a lot of open space and little place to hide.

Sylia called the Knight Sabers together to deal with the boomers, when Nene told her what was happening. She told Nene to get out of work anyway she could. Sylia knew already that this wasn't a case of rampaging boomers, rampaging boomers just don't stop to destroy a park. And ten 55Cs was stretching it, this had to be a staged boomer rampage. But for what purpose, Sylia asked herself. It could be a trap set by Genom to destroy them. With so little cover in the park the boomers could shoot at them easily. But only ten boomers, all the Knight Saber should be able to handle that. There was also Maverick, if he showed up the battle would be easier. That was when she realized that Maverick almost always fight while hiding, but in the park he wouldn't be able to hide.

"Ladies!" Sylia called for the other Saber's attention when they were all suiting up. "I want you to know that this boomer rampage is probably a trap."

"What!" Linna and Priss said.

"I knew it!" said Nene. "Talk about obvious. Ten boomer suddenly deciding to rampage in a park, come on! No body is dumb enough to believe that!"

"Nene is right. But this trap is not set for us, it's for Maverick." Sylia let that sink in while they all put on their hardsuits. "Genom might be planning to capture him, we can't let them have him. If Genom gets their hand on his technology and puts it on every boomer they will be unstoppable. His gun and whatever stealth system he has alone would make a boomer ten times more dangerous." She explained as they were on their way aboard the Knight Wing. "And we don't know what else Maverick has."

Soon they were they were at their destination and Sylia ordered her brother, Mackie, to drop them of to the south of the boomers. The Knight Sabers, each of them with a motoslave, dropped from Knight Wing. They fired their jumpjets to slow their descent.

****

As the Knight Sabers arrived at the scene, Lyon was heading towards it, by roof hopping. He was only a couple of blocks from the park, so he saw the Knight Wing drop the Knight Sabers and leave. He also saw that the ADP was already there and forming a perimeter around the park, preventing civilians from entering. He couldn't see any of their armored squad though.

When he arrived, the battle was already in full gear. The Knight Sabers had already killed two boomers with the help of their motoslaves and Linna was working on a third. He was about 40 meters away from the battle, on top of an apartment building east of the park. He didn't see any choice at all, he would have to go into the open. With a flex of his leg muscles he lunched himself towards the battle.

As soon as he heard that there were ten BU-55C boomers he'd decided to use at least about five to six full powered shots. He wanted to lower the number of boomers before they could gang up on him. So with his gun on full power, he landed 15 meters away from the battle on an equipment shed, jumped high and shot at three boomers while he was in the air. Two boomers blew apart, hit with streaks of light. The other saw him coming and had enough time to dodge.

As he landed he looked at each of the Knight Sabers. Linna was turning one into scrap metal with her motoslave's cannon, Sylia and Priss were both shooting at two boomers each, keeping them pinned down and Nene was of to the side jamming the boomers and occasional taking pot shots at them, most of which missed. There was one boomer that seemed to be intent on Nene though, it had just opened its mouth cannon when Lyon saw it. Lyon fired of his last full powered shot at the boomer and changed the power cell of his gun.

Unfortunately, Lyon didn't really bother to change his gun's power cell as fast as he could. He thought that the Knight Saber had the rest of the boomer occupied already. But he didn't know that five of the ten boomers were specifically programmed to make Maverick their priority target. Three of those five boomers survived.

The three boomers saw their priority target and ignored their current combatant. One of the boomers Sylia was fighting dodge a blast from her motoslave's cannon, opened its mouth and fired its particle beam cannon at Lyon, at the same time both of the boomers that Priss were firing at ignored her and one opened its chest and fired its heat cannon at Lyon, other used its mouth cannon.

Lyon had time to clumsily dodge two attacks, but the second particle beam hit him full on in the chest while he was recovering from his last dodge. He was lifted of his feet and thrown 15 meters backward towards the equipment shed he'd landed on earlier.

****

Nene was having trouble jamming and firing at the boomers at the same time. Her jamming prevents them from working together, but there was just too many of them. They were also modified and equipped with 12mm Gatling gun. She was firing her motoslave's cannon once in a while to keep the boomers back, but she couldn't keep on firing or there would be a chance that the boomers would break her jamming. It was a good thing that they all had a motoslave, they could take more hits from the boomers and they could hit back a lot harder. So far none of the Knight Sabers has gotten hit really badly and they've already brought down two boomer with another one to go. Suddenly there were three streaks of light and two boomers blew apart and the ground near a third exploded.

"Sylia! Maverick is here!" Nene announced through the Saber's com channel in case anyone missed it. Nene stared at the remains of the two boomers that was hit moments ago. She still could not believe that a gun that size could be so powerful. Then she turned her attention to the black clad figure that landed a few meters away. Maverick, she thought, who and what was he? As she watched, Maverick brought his gun up and fired. There was an explosion of to her side and she realized that she was ignoring the battle. That boomer was probably going for her and she didn't even know it. Before she turned back to the battle she saw Maverick eject a clip from his gun and reached to his belt for a replacement.

She turned just in time to see three boomers break of their fight with the other Sabers. The three boomers all fired at Maverick, two with their mouth cannons and the other with its heat cannon. She turned back just in time to see maverick get hit with one of the particle beams. She saw him fly towards the equipment shed and through its walls.

With the boomers attention somewhere else, the Knight Sabers took them down fast. They all turned and started walking towards the wrecked shed. They all saw Maverick fly to and through its walls while they were busy dealing with the boomers.

"He couldn't have survived that! No one could," said Priss her voice thickening. "Damn Genom!"

"We don't know that yet Priss," said Sylia although she too doubted that Maverick survived. "We'd better check. And besides we don't want Genom to get him, dead or alive."

"Sylia come here! Look he went through the other wall too." Sylia went to Linna and looked to where she was pointing. On the ground a few meters away from the other side of the shed was Maverick. His armor had a small crack on it and he was not moving but that was it. He didn't look like he was dead, she could see that he was still breathing.

"Sylia! I've called Mackie. The police's K-11s are coming." Sylia heard Nene's voice in her helmet.

"Good, ladies we'd better hurry. Priss carry Maverick with you. We have to get out of here."

****

"I'm getting worried, Lyon should have been back by now." Irene was in the living room, watching the TV for any news on the boomer rampage.

"Don't worry he can take care of himself and if something has happened to him it would have been on the news." Kou put an arm around Irene, holding her to him. They've gotten close in the past couple of weeks that Kou has been teaching Irene martial arts. Lyon also taught Irene, but Lyon couldn't teach her every day like Kou did. Kou was about to say again that Lyon would be back soon when the news grabbed their attention.

"We will show you a recording of the fight between ten boomers, the Knight Sabers and a new vigilante. This might not be suitable to all viewers, use your own discretion." A woman inside of a news set was show in the TV. Then the picture changed to that of the battle in the park. From the angle of the camera, the shot could have been taken from on top of a building or a hovering chopper.

Kou and Irene watched as the events unfolded in total silence. The news broadcast started from before the Knight Sabers arrived to until they left with an unconscious Lyon. Then the picture changed back to the woman.

"We have no way of knowing if the unknown vigilante is still alive or just injured." Irene tuned out the rest of the broadcast and buried her face in Kou's shoulder.

"Oh God! He could be dead. Lyon could be dead!" Irene cried clinging to Kou.

"Sh... He not dead Irene." Kou hoped that he was right. "He said that his armor could take a hit from a particle beam cannon right? That's what he got hit with, he should be alright. He's just a little shaken up that's all."

"I hope you're right Kou." He heard Irene whisper and hoped that Lyon told the truth about his armor and wasn't just boasting.

****

In the infirmary inside the Knight Saber's HQ, Sylia looked down at Lyon on the hospital bed. The other Knight Sabers were in the room a few feet from the bed, giving Sylia enough room to examine him.

"I can't tell what's wrong with him without removing his armor." Sylia examined Maverick's armor closely. There didn't seem to be any straps that fastens the body armor together, she wouldn't be able to get it off without cutting it off. And she wasn't sure that she had anything that could cut his armor. The helmet was easier, she undid a few clasp and then removed it.

"Lyon?!" gasped Linna and Nene.

Priss who only met Lyon for a little while in a dark club took a closer look. She was the only one who noticed Lyon's eyes blinking open. Sylia had turn a questioning look at Linna and Nene.

"Wh.. what happened?" asked Lyon groggily. Then he saw Priss leaning over him and at the same time realized that he wasn't wearing his helmet. "Hi! Priss! Nice to see you again!" he said or at least he'd intended to say, but the pain in his ribs had him gasping. "I think I have some broken ribs."

"I have to remove your armor to be able to threat your wounds." Sylia came over and examined his pupils.

"I'll have to get up," Lyon told her, pushing himself up and off the bed. He had a hard time, his ribs hurt even when he breathe.

Linna went over to him, holding him up. "Are you sure that you're up to standing?"

"Easiest way to get my gear of." Lyon tugged of this gloves, arm guards, leg guards and boots then pushed buttons on his armor that were hidden along the breast bone, his armor split on the left side with a hiss. He slid his right arm free and handed all of it to Priss. He reached to remove his belt when he realized that he wasn't wearing it. "Where's my belt?" Lyon asked Sylia.

"I remove it," Sylia replied cooly meeting Lyon's eyes with her own.

"Okay, so long as I didn't lose it during the fight." There was little chance that could have happened, but he didn't want to sound accusing. He pushed a button on his collar and his skin tight suit split from his neck to just above his waist. He pealed off the suit and stood wearing only his shorts. He turned to Linna who had been supporting him all the time and handed the suit to her then went back to lie on the bed.

As soon as he got back into the bed Sylia started examining him. "You have three broken ribs, you'll have to stay in bed until they heal." She looked into his eyes again. "You don't seem to have a concussion, do you want a sedative for the pain? It will also make you sleep."

"Yes." Lyon watched as Sylia went to get the sedative. "You know this isn't how I wanted to reveal myself to you. Oh well, I was about ready to approach you anyway."

Sylia gave him the shot then asked. "What did you want to approach us about?"

"I need help, I'll tell you about what later. When I'm thinking more clearly. Sylia, could you hand me my helmet for a sec?" Lyon took it from her and entered in his authorization codes. "Here you should be able to use this now Sylia." He gave her the helmet. "You'll only be able to access a few technical files, but they should help you against Genom. See you all tomorrow, I think the sedative is taking effect." He closed his eyes and in a few moments he was asleep.

"Can't believe that Lyon is Maverick, and he knew who we were all along!" said Linna when she saw that Lyon was already asleep.

"But we didn't meet Lyon until after the first time we saw Maverick, at least Priss and I didn't, and I don't think that Lyon has met Sylia at all," Nene said.

"No, I have not met him before," Sylia said, from her bandaging Lyon's ribs. "We can ask him question later, right now he needs some rest and time to heal." Her task done she covered Lyon with a blanket and ushered the others out of the room, taking Lyon's helmet with her.

****

The next day Sylia went down to check on Lyon. It was late, she'd over slept because she lost track of time going over the technical files stored in Lyon's helmet and ended up sleeping at dawn. Lyon was right, those files will help them a go against Genom. There was information in Lyon's helmet on how his gun was made, more important it showed how the gun's power cells were made. Sylia realized last night that if she could use those power cells on the Knight Saber's hardsuit it would increase the hardsuit's power supply by more than 500%. If she could also put a gun like Lyon's in their hardsuit it would increase their attacking power by 150-200%. Then there was Lyon's energy sword that doubles as a shield generator. Either one would be very useful in a hardsuit. The data on Lyon's armor was also very interesting, she would have to see if she could make those kinds of alloys and if she could make hardsuits out of it. She might also be able to make their inner wear from the same material as Lyon's skin tight full body suit.

Sylia entered the infirmary carrying a tray of food, Lyon should be hungry by now, he didn't eat dinner or breakfast. She activated the lights and heard Lyon groan.

"Good morning. I brought you something to eat." Sylia set the tray down near the bed, sat on a nearby chair and waited for Lyon to fully wake up.

"Good morning," Lyon greeted Sylia with a nod. "Thanks! I'm starving!"

"That's because you've skipped dinner and breakfast," Sylia told him, watching him eat.

Lyon was about to shove more food into his mouth when what she said hit him. "What! What time is it? And where's my gun?!" Lyon shouted and nearly made it out of bed if Sylia hadn't stopped him.

"It's past noon and I don't know where you're gun is." Sylia pushed Lyon back into the bed. "We didn't have time to look for it before the ADP arrived and we had to leave. What are you worried about? It said on your files that only you could use that gun. Are you worried that Genom will find it?" Asked Sylia, thinking of what Genom can do if they got possession of Lyon's gun.

Lyon stopped struggling as soon as he heard the time. "Past noon? No, I'm not worried that someone would find it, I thought that you had my gun." Lyon sighed.

"Why would you worry about that?" Sylia asked.

"It has a delayed self destruct mechanism, if I loose contact with it for 24 hours it melts," Lyon told her, then asked. "What time is it?" At her answer he sighed and closed his eyes. "13:30, I guess I don't have a gun anymore." He opened his eyes and looked at Sylia.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know. It didn't say anything about a self destruct mechanism on the file on your gun in your helmet. If I'd know..."

Lyon interrupted. "Not your fault. I still have my sword, I didn't use it before because I was maintaining a low profile. I've always liked hand to hand or melee to ranged combat anyway." Lyon told her with a smile.

Sylia looked at him thoughtfully. She's learned a few things about him from the files in his helmet. She knew that he belonged to some organization called TDC. She knew that because the files said that Lyon's gear were for use of TDC personal on a mission requiring only light armor and armament. Although if guns that can take out boomers in one shot is considered light armament she didn't like to think what heavy would be. She needed to know where he was from, although she had a bad feeling about finding out.

"Why did you let me have access to your helmet?" she asked.

"I wanted you to see them before I tried to explained who and what I am. And what I need your help for." Lyon paused to take a deep breath. "I'm not from this world." He studied Sylia's face after he said it. "You don't seem to be surprised. Why?"

"I've had a couple of ideas on who and what you are after I went through the files on your helmet." Sylia said calmly, but she still had a hard time accepting what he had just said. "One of them is that you're from another planet."

"What made you think that I was from another planet? An alien?" Lyon asked surprised.

"Your gear, according to your files it's only purpose was for armor, no enhancements and no jumpjets or anything that would allow you to jump the way you have been. That is if you were human. I thought that you could be a boomer or a boomeroid, but you got injured and I did a full med scan on you. You show up as completely human, which doesn't make sense if you're an alien. I need more information before I decide which you are," Sylia told him.

Lyon smiled. "I am human. I'm from another world but I'm still from Earth or Terra."

"You mean another dimension? That's even harder to believe. Right now I think that some government made you in a top secret facility. Our knowledge of bioengineering has been going up. That was the most reasonable thing I could think of to explain what you could do. You were made with bioengineering by some government."

"How about my gear?" Lyon said with a smile. He'd like to hear what she came up with to explain it.

"A major break through on energy manipulation and alloys that was kept a secret." By now Sylia was doubting her own explanations. One government couldn't have had all those advances in technology and kept it so secret that no one even heard a rumor about it.

"I am from another dimension Sylia." He preceded to tell her about TDC and its purpose. "That's why my gun has a self destruct, if I was back in time and I lost it, I'll only have a day to try to find it before it gets destroyed, it prevents someone from finding it and trying to reverse engineer it." He explained to her how he arrived to this world and that he hoped that she might be able to help him figure out how to get home. When she asked how he knew the Knight Saber's identities if he was from another world, he told her about Bubblegum Crisis. He avoided mentioning anything about future episodes, he only explained what the show was about and told her about the episodes that have already happened.

Sylia listened to it all hardly believing any of it at first, but she was monitoring him with the room's sensor, including a lie detector. If he was lying, either he was telling the truth or he believed it was true.

"So, you know what is going to happen in the future?" Sylia asked when he finished his explanation. She'd decided that he was telling the truth.



"You don't really want to know what's going to happen, do you?" Lyon asked. "Besides, I've already changed a lot of things just by being here." After a pause he whispered. "Irene was killed in the series, as a result one whole episode shouldn't happen anymore."

"You're right I don't want to know. You'd better eat, the food's getting cold." Sylia stood up and walked towards the door. She had a lot to think about.

****



To be continued.....



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