Filename: 03_BD_WOASS_Ch02_EX.txt
01/29/2002
Brian J. Mason was barely able to feel most of his body, and the parts he
could feel hurt as if he'd fallen into the Hell of Whirling Blades. Opening
his eyes, his half-focused vision made out the overhead lights and
instruments of a Genom biolab's research table, which suggested that such a
thing was a distinct possibilty, given how badly his plans had blown up in
his face. A wash of fear lent him the strength to turn his head slightly,
toward the sound of typing and quiet muttering. He must have made some
small noise of his own, because the lone figure - a man with some dark hair
color gone white at the temples, and a long white lab coat turned blue in
the half-light of the monitors - turned towards him.
Seeing his subject awake, Dr. Yoshida strode over to him and turned his
head back straight, placing a set of shields on either side to keep it
there. "Nah-ah-ah," he scolded. "You have some nasty nerve damage there,
and we wouldn't want to make it worse!" He let out a mildly disturbing
laugh as he reached for an opthalmascope, then used it to check Mason's
pupils' response. "Hmm, already nearly back to normal, and the pigmentation
change is accellerating. Tell me, can you feel your toes, Mr. Mason?"
Not entirely reassured that whirling blades were out of the picture, Mason
thought about it. "...barely," he mumbled.
"Ah, good, good! That means that the neural reconstruction is going as
effectively as my scans suggest! Excellent!" The doctor gave Mason a toothy
smile, then went back to his monitors. He examined the MRI scans slowly
rotating in unison there - one dated a year past, that had several areas -
mainly in the forebrain and a few nerve clusters - highlighted in green,
three more from that night, one taken as soon as Mason had arrived, the
others at three-hour intervals.
The first of the series had large parts of the nervous system highlighted
in red, showing the damage done by the electrocution Mason had suffered,
and webs of green spreading outwards from the clusters of the old scan to
trace the red zones. The next showed the red almost entirly replaced with
green, plus new large clusters in the eyes and ears, and a second green
tracery forming in Mason's musculature and organs. The most recent scan,
taken only a few minutes before he'd regained consciousness, was almost
entirely green - the soft tissues had been reduced in intensity to allow
the new developements to show up. It was spreading to Mason's skeleton now,
with additional clusters forming in the chest and forearms.
Yoshida had been studying the results of this particular Genom experiment
for twenty years now, and had a fair notion of what was to happen next. It
was probably going to be very painful, but Mason had a very strong will,
and was unlikely to break as the other surviving (and accessible... he
still advocated the retreival of the remaining two subjects in each report,
public profile or not) subject had when this stage of the transformation
was activated prematurely. He also appeared to have been much closer to
reaching it by to the experiment's damnably slow timetable than #9 had
been, possibly only a few more months and it would have activated on its
own.
Right on schedule, the executive on the table behind him began to whimper
in agony as his skeleton rearranged itself slightly. Remembering the times
when he'd been denied the opportunity to expose a new set of test
subjects... officially... Yoshida merely smiled again, and went back to
work on his latest improved version.
A variation of it had proven highly effective with that infiltration buma,
but had run wild at the end - he'd have to make certain that wouldn't
happen again, even if it would limit the scalability of the system. A world
broken down into grey goo by runaway nanites wouldn't be much of a place to
rule, after all.
Bewilderbeast Studios Present
BUBBLEGUM DISASTER
Season One
WISHES ON A SHOOTING STAR
A work of BGC fan fiction by ClassicDrogn
Chapter Two EX
Continuity note: For this series, one chapter = one OAV. Thus, when there
are things between the OAV events that need to be chronicled, I'll be
adding a chapter EXtension, numbered like this one. It may be that these
extensions will also include scenes from just before the end of the chapter
proper, which are important but which would break up the pace. The
extensions are absolutely required to follow the story, so don't skip them.
After a solid night's sleep and a big breakfast, everyone was in higher
spirits, though Priss took turns teasing Linna and Nene about their
appetites.
"I'm just hungry this morning!", Nene protested. "You should be glad I'm
not really sick after how I felt last night." Her hair had darkened further
overnight, to something approaching the color of cotton candy. "I never
knew one fight could take so much out of a girl!"
"Yeah, ease up, Priss," Linna added. "I know how much energy it takes to
jump around like she does all the time - I teach aerobics and martial arts,
remember? That's what's behind MY appetite, I just work it all right off!"
A third helping of rice and vegetables had dissappeared as she said this,
without ever seeming to be in her mouth as she talked.
Even Cynthia had tried a bite of the breakfast dishes, along with a large
glass of standard buma nutrient slush - it looked and smelled like a
strawberry milkshake, but contained an entire week's worth of the neccesary
supplements to support her biological systems. She giggled as she
explained, "I'm not supposed to, but it tastes so interesting! Major Rose
said just a little bit wouldn't hurt, so he let me sneak a bite now and
then."
Unsure of how to respond, the Sabers finshed breakfast in silence.
Finishing a last mug of coffee, Linna restarted conversation with a
question. "This looked like a really big place on the way in, Sylia, and so
close to Mega-Tokyo! It must have been very expensive, especially just as a
reserve."
Sylia nodded. "It's even bigger than you think - the property includes the
entire hill above us and a reasonable stretch of the land beyond, as well
as the section we drove past. It isn't just a reserve headquarters,
however, this is a major part of the Knight Sabers infrastructure." Seeing
the others' looks of incomprehension, she continued. "The Knight Sabers may
charge exorbitantly, and none of you have yet complained that you aren't
making enough; well," she amended, with an amused look at Linna, "not
seriously, but as a moneymaking proposition it's a distinct failiure. The
majority of our operating expenses are paid for by the businesses I own in
whole or in part worldwide. This farm is the largest I have complete title
to, but serves even further than that - the staff here built the majority
of our equipment from the designs I developed in my Lady 633 workshop. In
fact, they've nearly completed their most recent and largest project to
date."
Still a bit confused, Nene asked, "But... doesn't a farm take lots of
people? How can we keep our secret if we're operating from here?"
"This isn't a traditional farm," Sylia replied. "Inside the greenhouses are
high-yeild hydroponic gardens, tended by robots - old fashioned, electronic
robots. The surrounding grounds house pig runs and chicken coops, also
maintained by robots, though with closer supervision. The far side of the
hill is also home to the Ishioka stables, which once supplied mounts to
officers of the Shogunate's army and whose claim as a piece of national
history were what cleared the way to acquiring permits to redevelop here
after the Great Kanto Earthquake. Naturally, they have human handlers, but
all told the staff here is only thirty, all of whom have reasons to wish
our success." Finishing her own coffee, Sylia got up and went to her room,
leaving the door open as Mackie had already left to tend their equipment.
Priss was next to speak up, giving the doorway she'd gone through a
puzzeled look. "Ishioka? As in the Ishioka who bought into DSK Records
Group about three months ago?" Her slightly raised voice carried easily
over the sound of Sylia changing into her outfit for the day. There was a
quiet pause, but just as the singer opened her mouth to repeat the
question, Sylia reappeared in the doorway.
"I trust *this* is enough of an answer!", she ... bubbled. Priss left her
mouth open, and Linna's and Nene's joined it as they looked at the
ice-cool, levelheaded leader they thought they knew posing with hips cocked
and a little arch to her back.
Sylia's transformation was simple in its elements, but the combined effect
was... extreme. Makeup differently applied to make her features seem more
angular, a short white skirt, tan stockings, and matching white jacket over
a low-cut, light blue bodice, and a matching wig of powder-blue hair that
fell to her shoulders. A pair of blue bows rounded it out, one tied around
her neck, the other holding back her wig's - it HAD to be one, real as it
looked - long bangs. Most of all, the attitude was what sold the ensemble,
peppy and bouncy to match Nene, on a slow day at least. Playing out her
suprise, she enthused, "Meet miss Cecilia Mitsuki Ishioka-Wayne,
international playgirl and multi-gazillionaire!"
Nene broke out in uncontrollable giggles, while Linna still couldn't seem
to close her mouth. Pris recovered the quickest, a slightly sarcastic grin
on her face as she asked, "Has Mackie ever seen you in that?"
Nene giggled even harder at this, and Cynthia joined in, not getting the
joke but swept up in the fun. "You look like Nene's big sister!", the
little blonde girl said, between her own giggles. "Do I get to play little
sister?" Even Sylia broke into a laugh at that.
---=- + -=---
Royal Guardian 215 had found that the new installation Her Higness's Knight
Commander had chosen to move to was even better rigged for internal
security than the previous one. This was good in that it meant its Partner
was safer, but bad in that it made it more difficult to follow her command
to remain unnoticed and still maintain an acceptable level of protection,
even by the reduced physical standards its psychological analysis of Her
mandated to avoid further distress. It appeared that Her Knight Companions
had also been uninformed of the Guardian's impending arrival... Perhaps its
unorthodox activation was indicative of some missed timing? Regardless,
there were more immediate concerns.
It finally managed to penetrate the sensor net by masquerading as a ghost
image of Squire Mackie as he tended to the team's equipment, then headed to
the Security room. Having hidden there until Mackie had left, 215 then set
about interfacing with the security computer, using the interface protocol
it had learned from the Squire's earlier attempts to provide external
access. A subprocessor module was connected to the station's power supply
and programmed to mask the Guardian's presence, then, secure from detection
save by direct observation, it used the downloaded maps and data collected
from monitor records to make its way to the Princess's sleeping quarters,
keeping to the ceilings and altering its coloration to blend in.
Maintaining coverage and avoiding detection would be tricky, but
calculations gave only a 3% chance of its being discovered for upwards of a
week with proper precautions, and only a 12% chance in the week after that.
By that time it could surely have reassured the Princess and her armswomen
of its nature.
---=- + -=---
Sylia had been overacting a bit before, to make the most of her joke, but
she remained much more outgoing than normal as she showed the Sabers and
Cynthia around the living quarters and gym built into the reserve
headquarters. Exiting through the hangar at the back of the hill and its
stable-like disguised outer doors, she led the group on to the real stables
around a slight curve in the rear face of the hill. The valley beyond was
impressive in its natural grandeur, apparently some form of national park
or preserve as it was also undeveloped. A large bird - a hawk perhaps? -
circled overhead watchfully, and a small herd of horses grazed on the
fenced field that dropped gently to a stream running through the valley,
before the wooded slopes of the far hill led upwards again.
>From her spot by Priss's side, Cynthia made a happy sound as she spotted
the horses, and took a half-step in their direction before the singer's
hand in hers reminded her not to act without orders. She looked up to see
Priss's red eyes twinkling back at her.
"Go on, then," Priss said, smile widening as Cynthia ran over to the fence
with a gleeful yell, the better to watch the horses.
"Who'd have ever thought you'd be good with children, eh Priss?", Linna teased.
"Yeah, well..." Priss fumbled for a moment, at a loss to explain her
'weakness'. "I just like kids that age. So innocent." A slight blush of
embarrassment might have tinged her cheeks, but she'd turned away to face
the horses as well.
"I think it's sweet of you, Priss!", 'Cecilia' put in. "Besides, what
little girl doesn't like horses?" A slight nod of her head drew the others'
attention to Nene, who'd been oblivious as she watched two of the herd
prance over to the little buma-girl at the fence curiously. Her wide blue
eyes had a sparkle of their own as she admired their elegance in motion,
muscles rippling under smooth-coated hides.
Nene was brought out of her trance by Linna's muted laughter. "Huh? What's
funny?"
Stifling herself, Linna replied, "Nothing, nothing. C'mon, let's go make
sure she doesn't get bitten or something, okay?"
Sylia assured them, "The Ishioka breed is usually very levelheaded, but it
would be a good idea. Besides, I want to introduce you to Mr. Akimoto, the
head handler." So saying, she waved to the somewhat elderly man making his
way out of the stables with a cane. His long white hair was tied back in a
ponytail, and an equally silvered beard suggested some mixed ancestry, but
his features and skin tone were pure Japanese. He greeted Sylia warmly as
they moved closer.
"Why, hello Cecilia! Dropping by for another little visit, eh? And you
brought some friends this time! Heheh..." The spry old gent briefly waved
his cane to encompass the group, before leading them to the fence where one
of the horses had allowed Cynthia to gently pat its nose. It blew in
recognition as Akimoto came even with the little girl and reached into a
pocket. Speaking more softly to Cynthia, he noted, "Yoko here is a bold
one, but this is what she's really after." He pulled a small, green apple
out of the pocket, and handed it to the girl. "Put it on your palm with the
fingers together and flat, so she won't nip you taking it."
Doing as instructed, Cynthia giggled at the ticklish sensation of Yoko's
lips snatching the apple, and again as Mr. Akimoto gave her hand a quick
wipe with his kerchief to take the horse-spittle off it. Yoko, for her
part, happily muched on the apple, then hung her head over Akimoto's
shoulder and snuffled his hair. He laughed again as he gave the mare a
quick pat on the cheek before turning back to the women and leading them
all a few paces away from the fences.
"So, will you be staying with us a while this time, Cecilia?", the old
trainer asked.
"A few days at least," she replied, before continuing. "These are the
members of my special problem solving team, Linna, Priss, and Nene," she
intruduced. Priss smiled and nodded, Linna gave a polite bow, and Nene
waved cutely as they were named. "Cynthia you already met," she concluded
with a smile, as the blonde girl gave her own bow. "Would you mind watching
out for her for a little, while I show the others the rest of the facility?
I'm sure it would be much more interesting to her than a bunch of plants in
little trays."
"Oh, I imagine I can, imagine I can. Would you like that, little one?"
Seeing Cynthia's happy nod, he held his free hand out for her to take,
leading her to the stable proper and pointing things out with his cane here
and there.
"Will he be all right with her?", Priss asked. "She's a lot like a human
kid, but she IS still a buma."
Answering the singer's real question, as well as her words, Sylia replied,
"Mr. Akimoto makes a show of being everyone's favorite grandfather. He'll
make sure she's safe, and if I know him she'll be full of a hundred horse
stories by the end of the afternoon. As for security, this may look rural
but it's about as heavily set with sensors and defense systems as anything
can be and remain hidden. This way, now."
Sylia directed them to the small courtyard between the stables and the
house where the Akimoto's lived. She waved to Mrs. Akimoto through the
kitchen window as they went through the doorway leading back into the
underground sections of the facility, past storerooms for the stables and
then to a lift, that carried them up and into the administrative level of
the official farm construction. As they made their way to the meeting room
just outside her office, she asked, "Nene, you arranged an authorised leave
with the ADPolice, correct?"
The pink-haired officer noded. "Mmhmn! I changed the duty schedule so I'd
have the next week off, and got out early by telling the Cheif a family
emergency came up like you said to. But Sylia, my record says I don't have
any known family!"
"I know Nene, but we have to explain your absences somehow, and it will
take several days at best to insure that our identities have not been
compromised. Linna, Priss, I want the two of you to use the vidphone here
to make any calls you need to, and say that you've found an uncle in
Hakkodate, but he's on his deathbed and won't hear of you leaving until he
has a chance to tell you everything about other relations. Nene will alter
the calls so they appear to originate from Tokushima, however. If we have
been found out this should draw off pursuit and alert us when the Tokushima
location is investigated."
Linna sighed. "I'd better go first, I was due to have a class in just a few
hours. I hope Matsuda will be able to cover it for me with so little
notice..."
---=- + -=---
Like an ocean liner on a moonless night, the space station Genaros drifted
through the endless dark of space, viewports and running lights dotting its
shadowed bulk as it passed over Earth's night side. Aboard it, at an
intergrated computer terminal/desk, a young woman tapped away at the
keyboard. She seemed to be average height, with neck-length red hair and
amber eyes. She was also very involved in her task, so much so that she
jumped and squeaked in suprise when a loud male voice behind her said, "Hey
MEG!"
Whipping around in her seat, Meg's eyes widened as she saw the station's
young commander behind her. "S-sir?" she stuttered.
Waving his hands in negation, the athletic man - a blonde, buzz cut
specimen of the American Space Program accquired at the same time its
hardware was sold off to the private sector, no doubt - continued, "No need
to be jumpy, doll. You finish cracking the scramble on The HOTT Network
like Hendricks asked you to, yet?"
Much relieved, but still keeping her body between the workstation and her
superior, she replied, "Not quite, sir, it appears to be a triple-encoded
algorithm, quite complex for a civilian system."
Nodding, the commander muttered, "Yeah, figures that the top American porn
channel would be top of the line for security, too." Then, louder, he
finished, "Well, wrap it up, and then report to my quarters for some - heh
- operational load testing."
Hiding the distaste she felt in defiance of her programming, she simply
nodded and acknowledged, "Yes sir... I was scheduled to go to Maintenence
for a software patch at the end of this duty cycle. A stability-enhancer,
from what I've heard of it. Should I postpone that until afterward?"
Already turning to go, the commander replied, "Nah, do that first. Last
thing we need around here is another rogue buma."
Allowing her face to twist into the frown she'd been hiding as the door
slid closed behind him, Meg muttered to herself, "If you knew how close you
were to a rogue you'd be thinking a lot more with your brain, you twit."
Schooling her features and turning back to the station, Meg continued to
ignore the "Activate descramble?" dialog box floating in the background,
instead finishing her little jaunt into the station's black production
database. Finally sure she'd disabled all the tracers, she selected a file
named "BU35A_UNARMED_COMBAT.TGZ" and downloaded it to a datadisk. Logging
out of the filesystem, she finally hit "OK" on the dialog box, and shut
down the terminal after ejecting the disk and slipping it into a pocket on
her jumpsuit.
Nam and Lou in Maintenence would upload it to her hardware tonight, and she
could distract her mind while the basic Sexaroid programming took care of
the commander by hacking it into her backup runtime image and use that to
make a proper patcher for Nam, who should also be able to use it. A good
thing the commander hadn't asked HOW it would increase her stability, since
she doubted he'd approve of an unrestrained, intelligent buma with the
martial arts that had been designed for the BU-35A project, when it had
been deemed too risky for further developement in the first place. Even if
it would mean she had the same absolute balance and poise. She'd have to
make it something she switched on and off, too, or the body language would
give her away, and the accellerated responses would break her systems down
even faster.
She was one of the last of the 33S models, most of the way to being a 35A
physically, but the solution to the critical failing of her series had been
the end of the 33S project and the beginning of the 35A... and that design
update was nowhere to be found even in the most protected parts of
Genaros's filesystem. If their little band of free-thinkers ever wanted to
be truly free, they'd have to make it planetside somehow... She'd have to
try to talk to Sylvie again the next time her shuttle was onboard.
Meg was determined, she WOULD become free. If she could do something about
it, her freinds would, too... and she was getting the idea that if all of
them worked together, they could do a lot more than "something."
---=- + -=---
Tora and Hiryuko Kagami breathed twin sighs of relief as they stepped out
of a blue-black hole in the air and into the shadows of a dead-end alley in
Mega-Tokyo. Neither was sure if their most recent adventure had been real,
or just some illusion of thier wills and the Realm Between, but they'd
seemed to have been tossed back in time, before their own origins to the
mid 1990s.
Making their way out to the bustling streets, Hiryuko asked, "Do you miss
them sometimes? All our old friends and enemies?"
"Yeah, lotsa times, Hi-chan," Tora replied. "But this was a reminder of why
we decided to break off seein' them, too."
"I guess you're right," she agreed. "And our daughter is HERE; whatever it
was that hit us in the Realm Between just makes it even more important to
find her, and Linna, right away. Linna should be pretty easy, now, since I
was right next to her for a few minutes I should be able to find her by
Dreamwalking. You'll have to watch over me, though."
"Of course. What else is a master half-spirit martial artist good for but
to watch out for the girl he loves?"
They walked into the crowds as she leaned close and gave him the full list.
It took quite a while.
---=- + -=---
Once again, Sylia's Mercedes was at the top of a parking garage, and her
encryption systems were live. The General of the USSD looked even worse
than last time, prolonged stress having drawn his face into a collection of
hard angles far different than the chubby, rounded man who'd originally
hired the Sabers. His eyes widened and his breath caught as he saw the
Knight Sabers logo appear on his vidphone screen.
"We have recovered your black box, General," she calmly stated. She revised
her opinion of him upwards by a small amount, as he released the breath and
his shoulders relaxed. Obviously he'd been no happier than she that some
unknown party could randomly decide to rain burning annihilation
essentially anywhere on earth, though she didn't particularly trust in the
military's hands either.
"You have no idea how good it is to hear that," he replied. "What of its
design data?"
"The laboratory it was being studied at was destroyed, but beyond that
there can be no guarantee. I'd be a fool to say so, and you a fool to
believe it if I did. I trust the delivery arrangements still stand?" Sylia
asked.
"Yes. We will send a courier to meet your agent as agreed, and the twenty
million zenii will be delivered to the account you specified. There is one
other thing, however," he began. "Our systems show that the satelites were
receiving jumbled commands during the time I presume you were ...
retreiving the black box. The sytem was designed to be untrackable and the
link unbreakable, how - "
"Any signal can be jammed, General," Sylia cut him off. "Espescially at its
source. I only count it lucky that the target point was shifted to the
unpopulated wilds of mainland China when the buma it was built into finally
got through the jamming, instead of here in Mega-Tokyo."
Down her opinion went again, reaching new lows as the general snorted and
replied, "That's only because you don't have to deal with the Chinese. I
could still lose my commission over this, and it's a black mark that will
stain the USSD's record for years. Is there anything else you'd like to
bring to my attention on this matter?"
"Yes," Sylia replied. This was the reason she'd even risked the call, with
the threat of exposure riding over her. "The lab was a recently reactivated
Genom facility, and we have photographic evidence of an executive car
retreiving two people, or a human and a buma, and leaving the facility just
after we defeated the black box buma. Not good enough to identify them,
unfortunately."
The general's shoulders had tightened up again, and his lips pressed into a
hard line as she passed on the information. He seemed to steam slightly, as
he closed, "It's unlikely in the extreme that we'll find any evidence of
Genom being behind this fiasco, but if one of their facilities was involved
we will have to investigate the matter. Thank you, Knight Saber, you will
recieve the extra payment as agreed." The channel disconnected without
waiting for a response, and Sylia cursed softly. She'd had hopes that USSD
at least would be a big enough juggernaut to confront Genom directly. *I
should have known better,* she thought. *Genom has even more political
power than their bumas provide militarily, because nearly every OTHER world
power has become dependent on them as well, on both sides of the Polar War.*
Still frowning, she started the engine, and pulled out of her parking space
to head back to the new headquarters.
---=- + -=---
Linna stood outside Priss's dressing room at Hot Legs, while the singer
argued angrily with the manager. They had to go fight a buma that had gone
rogue near Sylia's, but Priss was due to go on stage and the fat man was
giving her a hard time about it. He'd pull at his scraggly beard while she
talked, then yell at them some more... Oddly, she couldn't quite make out
what he was saying, but he seemed to be getting bigger and bigger as she
waited and her watch beeped away the seconds. Louder and louder... and then
everything faded away to swirling mists. "Wha?", she eloquently stated.
"This must be a dream..."
A voice from behind her answered, "Yes, but not all dreams are fantasy,
Linna." Turning to see the speaker, Linna first thought it was Nene, but
only for a moment - the hair was right, but this woman was a bit taller,
and her face slightly longer.
"Who are you?" asked Linna, confused. "Where is this?"
"My name is Hiryuko Kagami, and this," the redhead said, waving a hand
through the mists, "Is the Realm Between. Halfway between the Mortal Realm
and the Spirit Realm, this is where sleeping souls dream, and where
restless souls haunt. Your friend Irene was such a restless soul, until you
accepted her ring - I was here when she told you to take it that day, and
you heard her with your heart."
Linna still felt confused, but the wispy, lightheaded feeling of dreaming
had dissipated. "Her engagement ring? But... people become ghosts when they
have something left undone... I can't get married for her!"
Hiryuko smiled, and moved a bit closer to Linna, from a formal distance to
a more casual one. "Naah. She just wanted you to take it as a keepsake, so
there'd be someone who remembers for her now that both 0f them are gone.
But there was still something botherin' her, keeping her here. She was
worried for you, because someone'd sent an assassin after her the same day
you spent the whole afternoon together. So, me and my husband Tora agreed
to be your Spirit Guardians. She was happy then, and I took her right to
Enma Daio's desk."
"You're married to a tiger?" Linna repeated. "Well, I guess if you're a
spirit you can change forms to match or something..."
Hiryuko giggled, and waved a hand in negation. "Heh, I told him it sounded
like a tough-guy nickname, but he was so proud to be over the Neko-ken...
Never mind that that was none of OUR doing... Anyway, we're not really
spirits, well, sorta but not quite. See, we're both half human, so we have
access to all three realms pretty much anytime. We'll find you physically
soon, so we can take turns looking out for ya and looking for our daughter."
"Okay... I guess... I never really beleived spirits and things were real
before, but if you are and you're friendly I'm not going to argue." Linna
shook her head, and waved her own hand through the mist. The two of them
walked side by side, in a meaningless direction. "But what's that about
your daughter?"
Hiryuko raised an admonishing finger. "You should believe in the kami,
Linna, they believe in you. As for our daughter... We think she must be
someone you know well, because traces of her spirit signature are very
strong on you. Do you know anyone with bright red hair?"
Linna paused before answering. "Well, there is one person, but her family
name is Romanova, not Kagami. I don't know anyone named Kagami,
unfortunately. It may be someone who goes to the fitness center where I
work."
The other woman's shoulders slumped slightly, but she recovered quickly.
"Okay, well, I guess that'll take care of it for tonight. If we don't find
ya in the next day or so I'll do this again to get a second bearing on
where you are. Seeya around!"
Linna awoke to the subtle rumble of the new HQ's ventilation system. She
lay awake under the soft blue glow of her clock face, and tried to remember
the dream she'd just had... turning to the small stand beside her futon,
she flicked on the lamp and picked up the chain she normally wore under her
clothes these days, Irene's ring looped through it like a pendant. She
watched the diamond catch the light of the lamp for a few moments as she
turned it over in her hands, then, sighing softly, turned the light back
out and went back to sleep.
-----------------------------
Opthalmascope: You know, that flashlighty thing with the black cone bits
doctors use to look in eyes and ears.
Why doesn't 215 just, y'know, TALK to the Sabers? It's not programmed to
handle this kind of situation, and unlike a buma it can't act beyond its
programming. It's really meant to be linked to a Partner all the time,
completely subservient to their will and acting independently only to
safeguard him/her while unconscious or in situations where ... er ... a
lack of outerwear is indicated. It's an expert system for combat,
infiltration, and weaponry, but very limited outside of those fields, with
only a limited non-combat interaction script library. Its medical functions
are very developed as well, concentrating on regenerative and anti-aging
techniques rather than modification or replacement, but it remains to be
seen how well they will be adaptable to humans, since an 80% match could
fit any fantasy humanoid race just as well. It's anime, though -
traditionally, the aliens are genetically compatible if they're anything
like human-looking, so you can expect medical proceedures to carry over
more or less.
Why aren't the horses afraid of Cynthia, when an alley cat, arguably more
intelligent and certainly harder to spook, freaked out at Sylvie in the BGC
anime? Well, I'm saying it was because Sylvie's systems were partially
breaking down, and she'd been, y'know, sucking people's blood and stuff. I
figure the smells of death would have been pretty strong on her, and
wouldn't you be a little freaked if someone that stank like a corpse
offered you a bite of their burger?
Guardian 215 should be imagined with the vocal talents of Susan Blu after
being ordered not to use Priss's voice; if you don't know her by name, she
did (among other shows) Arcee on the post-movie Transformers episodes, as
well as in the movie itself. You can even keep the flanging effect if you
like, though it's not really there.
Many thanks to my prereaders: Patricia Kostan (who knew nothing of BGC, and
helped make sure the story was understandable to people who were not
familiar with the series), Nathan Baxter (who sent me a spelchekked verison
of this when I sent the first draft a little TOO rough), Hide Hasegawa (who
also helped with Japanese), and Kaitlin Coelho.
Bubblegum Crisis belongs to Youmex and Animeigo, I make no claims
otherwise. Please don't sue me, I have no money to speak of and fanfic does
more to promote your products than anything else I know of - without it, I
never would have known about anime at all, and I'd certainly never have
bought t he BGC tapes based on the sucky box copy.
Ranma 1/2 I'm not so sure of, except that the creator was Rumiko Takahashi,
not me, and that I make no claims to own IT either. Likewise, Dragon Ball
was created by Akira Toriyama, and I may be wrong but THINK it's
distributed by the same comic company as Ranma in the US, which would make
the comics Dark Horse or Viz. Dragon Ball videos are distrubuted in the US
by FUNimation, and ... well, that's all I'm saying about them.
EOF
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