The prereaders have been sacked. Not one of them even got back to me on
this part! Line by line grammar/spelling nits are therefore welcome to be
picked.

Specific points I'd like everyone to think about: Do you wantr to see more
of Nene's retraining, rather than hear about it? She's spent just shy of
three years in never-never land, despite it only being overnight as far as
the Mortal Realm is concerned. Going striaght back to work is going to be a
bigger pain than she expects, not having done anything remotely similar
during that time, and she's in noticeably better shape than when she was
last htere a week or so ago. Second, there is big, crunchy lumps of
exposition scattered around in here. Suggestions on how to break them down,
if possible, are welcome.

Also, as soon as I finish adding some revisions, I'll be reposting some of
the earlier chapters, because I changed how I'm dealing with the Griffin
and needed to put in some backstory, but this affects only two or three
parts. Should I repost the whole deal, or just the ones that changed
significantly? All parts have been further proofread at a minimum since the
initial FFML versions, and other minor revisions to dialogue or
descriptions have also taken place, but nothing else affecting the actual
plot in a major way.


Enjoy!

- ClassicDrogn, experiencing Posting Rush!




06_BD_WOASS_Ch_03_EX2.txt

8/23/02 - first draft complete! Yay!


The Realm Between is almost the definition of chaos. The minds of
innumerable dreamers create pockets of pseudo-reality, lasting only so long
as the dream before fading to nothingness and swirling mists. Here and
there, some restless ghost or magical being will form a more stable world
around themselves, or an 'overflow' (for lack of a better term) of energy
from the Mortal Realm will spin off a shortlived divergent reality. There
are beings native to the half-life of this realm, existing because they
believe in their own existance and taking sustenance from the radiated
psychic energy of dreamers - Chimerae, Feylings, Nightmares, and more.

Very, very rarely, a stable mini-Realm will form, regardless of what dreams
may impinge on it, ghosts haunt, or creatures dwell. One such pocket of
stability served as the end point for a blue-black portal, from which
stepped a petite redheaded woman, carrying a slightly smaller and brighter
haired version of herself in her arms, and followed by a somewhat taller
man with bright blue hair. The girl being carried sobbed brokenly into the
other's shoulder, taking no notice of the grand view from the balcony
they'd appeared on. No more did the woman carrying her seem to notice the
double gravity as she balanced on one foot to nudge open the doors with the
other. The man quickly followed, closing the doors behind him as he entered.



Bewilderbeast Studios Present

BUBBLEGUM DISASTER

Season One

WISHES ON A SHOOTING STAR

A work of BGC fan fiction by ClassicDrogn


Chapter Three EX2


Continuity note: Because of the problematical nature of nailing down
relative elapsed time in the Realm Between, the cut-scenes in this part are
placed more for convenience of pacing than an actual hard timeline. They
are of course in order as far as cause and effect are concerned.



After an hour or so of wailing in her mother's arms on a couch, Nene had
managed to calm down to a case of the sniffles. As she wiped her eyes and
nose one last time, her father asked gently, "Can ya please tell us what's
wrong, Kireko?"

Disgarding a soggy tissue, she nodded and began. "Mmhm. I ... I failed my
freinds by taking too long to beat those buma and help Sylia. I was
supposed to be her backup! It's my fault she was so badly hurt, and now
she'll have to become a bumaroid or spend the rest of her life as a
cripple... and now she hates me; doesn't even want to look at me." The
redhead had sat up and braced her hands in her lap as she spoke, but
hearing the dejection in her voice Hiryuko pulled her back into a hug.

Nene, more properly known as Kireko Kagami, leaned into her mother, but her
head remained lowered as she continued. "I can't blame her for that, not
when it's my fault. You told me yourself, if I'm going to go around getting
into battles I can't let my skills slip, but I never practised any more
after you vanished... I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologise for that, at least," Tora assured her. "We're
the ones that let a buncha stupid priests lock us in a temple for ten
years, and you *were* only five. We never practised except with Pops until
we were six and a half, and he started formal training on us a little
earlier than we wanted to with you. Pops was a little extreme about it
sometimes."

"I'd say that was putting it mildly," Hiryuko agreed, "except that we were
only slightly better on our own. Granted we never jumped into a pit ful of
... cats ... by choice-" she continued, pausing to shudder slightly in
remembered fear.

"-or chained our legs, tied steaks to our chest, and tried to run through
wolf-infested forests in the dead of winter-" cut in Tora.

"-or tried to steal mice from rattlesnakes-"

"-and jumped across ever-wider gullies full of them, for that matter-"

"-or practised endurance, breath control and escape by chaining ourselves
to a rock and pushing it off a cliff into the sea-"

"-or balanced fat, stupid pandas on our heads while learning a new kata
balanced on the ends of ten foot poles over a bonfire-"

"-or... Well, actually we DID pull nuts out of a fire on our own, and catch
pirhana barehanded, and joined a wolf pack for a few weeks in hopes of
scaring the neko-ken out of ourselves by acting like dogs, but I think you
see what we mean," the red-haired woman concluded. "A martial artist's life
is filled with peril. It's one of the few things Pops was actually right
about."

Caught up in the recitation, Nene had raised her eyes again, peering
closely at her parents as they rattled off their list of insane training
stunts. Both met her gaze levely; they were serious about every word. "I
will," she stated, finally. Her voice carried more than just the words, it
suddenly had a core of steel.

"Huh?" Both elder Kagamis blinked simultaneously, confused by the apparent
non-sequitur.

"I'll do all that and more, if that's what it takes to be there when my
friends are counting on me. I'm never going to let them down again," Nene
explained. An unspoken current hung in the air, the challenge of a
warrior's spirit as fear and self recrimination subsumed and transformed
into determination. Tiny points of fire burned at the back of her eyes, and
for just a moment a slight shiver, almost like a heat mirage formed around
her shoulders. Again, her parents spoke as one.

"Definitely our daughter."

--=--

Later that day, Tora was taking Nene on a hiking tour of their little
pocket of reality, both to familiarize her with the family seat and to
continue the reconditioning begun on their first trip into the depths of
the Realm Between. The challenge of moving through the mountainous terrain
under double gravity was forcing her desk-jockey endurance past old limits.
The floating island of rock was perhaps six miles in diameter, its center
taken up with vertiginous cliffs that housed the main residence, sloping
from their feet through small, rough, hogbacked hills before evening out to
a  meadow that lead off gently to the stony edge of the 'world'. If it had
been an island in an ocean, it would have had a fine harbor where two rocky
promontories reached out towards a small companion rock, which oddly enough
WAS surrounded by seawater for a few dozen feet to either side, before
fading away to insubstantiality. Though none of them were visible, the
calls of seabirds echoed eerily on the breeze there, mixed with the creak
of rope from the suspension bridge that led to it from the main island. Far
below, the mists of the Realm Between rolled, bright white in the
sourceless psuedo-sunlight of the island, while the spray from a waterfall
pouring forever over the side fell toward them. Scrubby ironwood trees
populated the cliffs and higher hogbacks, while yews and golden oak filled
out the small valleys, and the ring of meadows was home to wildflowers and
sweetly aromatic grass.

The wildlife of the island was strangely different from that of earth,
though still recognisable - small, long finned fish, their bodies jeweled
with all the colors of the rainbow, darted between flowers and back to
their pools and streams surrounded by glowing halos of energy, while fat,
rubbery looking brown and red lizards chirruped from the trees, and now and
then snapped one of the fish up with an incredible leap before bouncing off
the ground and back to their perches. A small herd of heavily muscled pigs
was the most normal animal life to be seen as they snuffled and trotted
across the trail near one of the many small, round pagodas nestled here and
there in the terrain. The biggest surprise was a three foot long fish that
swooped out of the sky to snap up a piglet in toothy jaws before returning
to some high pond on the cliffs, while perhaps the oddest ommission was the
utter lack of flying insects, though Nene for one wasn't complaining.
Living as she had in the city her entire life, Tora felt some doubt that
she'd even note their absence unprompted. Rounding a final hill he waited
for her to catch up while looking over their destination, a walled garden
with another of the round buildings in the center. To one side of it was a
structure like a temple bell, which was mobbed by butterflies. The whole
complex seemed to waver slightly, like a heat mirage, and was surrounded by
a circular path of raked gravel.

"Foo... so... what's this one... Daddy?", Nene panted, trying to catch her
breath. She wiped at her forehead and grimaced as sweat stung in a scrape
she'd picked up catching herself from a potentially disastrous tumble on
the steep cliff path.

Turning again to face his daughter, Tora grinned slightly at her continuing
determination, then replied, "This is the garden where most of our food
gets grown - the plants and bugs are all transplanted. There's a field with
carrots, peanuts, and a few other root vegetables on the far side, but most
either can't take the gravity outside the garden or don't attract the fish
to pollenate them. There's a whole lot of herbs growing here, too, and some
of them are dangerous if you use 'em wrong, so make sure you know what
things are before you touch 'em."

Puzzled, Nene asked, "Why would it make a difference being outside the
garden? Gravity is gravity, isn't it?" Receiving no answer but a wider
grin, she groaned and followed him down the trail to the intersection with
the path around the outside of the wall. Up close, the slight, shimmering
distortion in the air was even more noticeable, almost as if looking
through a piece of shifting, uneven glass. Taking his offered hand and
somehow sickeningly sure of what was about to happen, she nevertheless
stumbled as they stepped through the clinging, slick-feeling distortion
into normal gravity, and had to hang off of his arm to keep from falling.
"What... How is this possible?" Stepping a bit further away from the field,
Nene bent over to stretch out her back, then continued, "It's great to feel
light again, but how do you do it?"

Having assured himself that Nene wasn't using incorrect stretching
techniques, Tora led her through the gateway, and into the garden as he
replied. "I'm not so sure how it works exactly - Hi-chan's the one who's
into magical theory, not me - but it's controlled from inside this pagoda.
Oh, important tip: You see that big bell?" Tora pointed at the large,
rough-looking stone bell that the butterflies swarmed around. From this
close, it was apparent that they were actually flying in and out of the
mouth, and it seemed to be made of concrete; millions of little stones
stuck together rather than a large, carved one. Seeing Nene's nod, he
continued, "It's not a bell, it's a butterbee hive. They're prettier and
slower moving than earth bees, but every one can sting dozens of times
before it runs out of venom. *DON'T ring the butterbee hive.*"

Looking closely at the butterbee fluttering aroud her head, Nene saw that
its body was banded in bright orange and black, and ended in a slightly
curved stinger like a wasp's. Before she could become too concerned,
however, it went on its way, joining a half-dozen of its fellows harvesting
the nectar from a brilliant mauve foxglove spike. Unlike most earthly
insects, each seemed to have its own individual pattern of colors on the
wings, and she wondered for an instant what caused it.

That small marvel was forgotten when she stepped into the central
pagoda-like building. A small rack beside the sliding door held various
gardening tools, but what grabbed her attention was the mechanical
sculpture filling the far half of the room. It was made of bronze, with a
slight patina of corrosion over most of the surfaces, and scribed all over
with fainly glowing runes, while massive cogs and weighted arms spun
slowly, smoothly, and nearly silently, and a collection of small glowing
balls orbited near the top of the contraption. Two large rings protruded
from the front face, scribed regularly with more runes, though these did
not glow. More recently, someone had painted the familiar arabic numerals
onto the rings beside the original runes, and she could see that the lower
ring went by single digits while the upper seemed to indicate decimal
places. She stared at it for a long moment, then smiled mischeiviously and
asked, "It's certainly impressive, but is it art?" She was far too slow to
avoid the gentle rap on the head that followed, and rubbed the spot
unrepentantly.

"It's the gravity machine, little pest," her father answered, voice light
and eyes merry. "While the gravity in the garden never changes, the rest of
the island is subject to the control from here. It's about as low as it
goes right now, but we can turn it down a bit more like this." Tora shifted
three of the smaller levers on a control panel off to the side, and the
runes on the lower ring glowed to life. He spun the wheel attatched to the
front of the stand a few turns, and the ring slowly shifted down to the
stop, reading (in sloppy new paint) one and a half gravities, or in the
runic text something that looked like a smiley with an eyepatch. While
there was no appreciable change in the motion of the machine, the glowing
balls of light flashed pink for a few moments before returning to their
normal blue-white.  "There, all set. We'll get a pepper and a some peas
before we go, then be back in time for lunch before I need to go do the
Guardian Spirit thing, looking out for evil influences on Linna and your
friends..." Tora trailed off, hoping that Nene would, perhaps, be willing
to face, or at least send a message to, her freinds, now that she'd gotten
over her angst attack.

The redhead bit her lip for a moment, before pleading, "Don't tell them
anything yet... I don't want to go back until I'm really ready to fight...
Until I can face Sylia and say I'll never let them down again."

Her father nodded solemnly, realising that, like all too many things, there
would be no quick fix. It was simply going to take time for the emotional
wounds to heal, but fortunately time was something that they had in
abundance, so 'deep' into the Realm Between. Even more, Nene had reached a
plateau in her physical growth that wasn't there for full humans, something
that had confused himself and Hiryuko when they went through it, and
wouldn't change much in appearance for five or six years, when she'd fill
out to the adult appearance that would last for... as long as she wanted,
really. As a half-breed spirit, age became an option once reaching adult
growth. These and other considerations kept him quietly occupied while the
two of them picked pea pods, and pulled the occasional small weed.

Breaking the silence at last, Nene asked, "How high can the gravity machine
go? If one and a half is the lowest, what's the top of the range?"

Looking over the peppers to find one just right for picking, Tora replied,
"We've never actually tested it, but it's calibrated to twelve thousand
gravities, if we're reading the runes right. It may be more, but it doesn't
make much difference... at that point, nothing would be able to survive,
not even the fish that fly and support themselves with ki-force."

"T... Twelve *thousand?*" Nene barely kept herself from dropping the cloth
they'd wrapped the peas in.

Absently, her father nodded, adding, "Unfortunately, the ancient wizard
ghost who'd owned this place before we found it was too far gone to tell us
much of anything before he died - one of the less pleasant natives of the
Realm Between had gotten to him, and he was too tattered by the time we
destroyed it. He just barely managed to tell us where to find his notes
before dissipating, and ask us to keep the place safe. Dunno why, but we
needed a place anyway after escaping from those priests, so we moved in."

"I see," Nene replied. "It's certainly beautiful here, strange animals and
all. I'm glad I've gotten to see it."

---=- + -=---

After nearly two hours of unremitting agony, Sylia had finally recovered,
and lay limply on the medical bed, her breathing shallow and tear-streaked
eyes closed. Dr. Vector remained at the instrument console, while the other
Sabers had found seats here and there - Mackie on a stool by the tall,
mirror-backed dresser, worried and dithering; Priss crosslegged on the
floor, angry, alternately clenching her fists and smacking them against the
carpet; Linna on a cushion brought from the kitchen when she'd gone to look
for Nene. Tora's note lay beside her, now crumpled slightly, and her
attention seemed to be directed inward, deep in thought.

She was roused when the doctor made a few final settings, then quietly
announced, "I think I understand what is happening now, but I also think
it's best if I explain to Sylia before telling anyone else - it's a matter
of confidentialirty. She's going to be all right, however... you could even
say, better than all right. For now though, the best prescription for all
of us is a good night's rest. It's been a trying day, and one that started
rather early. I don't imagine it would be a problem to use the other guest
rooms here would it, master Wayne?"

Mackie looked blank for a moment, then remembered himself. "Oh, right. No,
no problem - they're all western style beds, but just pull back the covers
and they should be fine... You can use any of the ones on the other side of
the hall, and the bathroom is the door on the end away from the stairs." As
the women left, he quietly asked the older man, "Does this have something
to do with... You know?"

"I believe so," T.T. replied. "I'll explain tomorrow, after talking to your
sister."

--=--

Lying awake in the bed - a good match for her own, actually, she'd always
preferred them over a traditional futon or tatami - Linna couln't help but
worry about her freinds... She didn't really have that many, and now one
was dead, another badly injured, and a third missing. She traced a finger
across the ring on its necklace as she said a silent prayer for Irene, then
for Sylia's recovery and Nene's safe return as she looked out the window to
the glow of the city beyond.

Finally rolling onto her back, she mused, "Things have to get better
soon..." Linna closed her eyes and sighed, not wanting to look at the clock
again. "I really wish I could get some sleep..."

In the spaces between the shadows, a watchful presence heard, and a minor
spell reached out to bring much-sought peace. Linna fell into a deep,
restful sleep within a few seconds.

Deep, but not quite dreamless...

---=- + -=---

For the next three months, Nene's daily routine became a mixture of
strength and endurance training, kata, and sparring sessions with her
mother, while Tora was absent, tending to Guardian Spirit duties. The two
redheads climbed, ran, or jumped over every inch of the small floating
island's terrain, but they also talked, about the life Nene had made for
herself, about the life the Kagamis had led before their capture, even
before their splitting into seperate beings, and as the spirits that were
transformed into their current forms, plus of course more normal
mother-and-daughter chatting and teasing.

It was only a day or so before Tora was due to return and switch off with
his wife that they came upon an extremely odd scene while doing agility
training in a forested area. A huge man, perhaps ten feet tall, was lopping
the branches off of a tall tree with some kind of thrown weapons while a
woman stood nearby cheering him on. Except for his hands, eyes, and laced
bindings holding his pants closed at the calves, he had the slightly fuzzy,
indefinite air common to dream-constructs, while the woman seemed to be
dressed in clothes meant for a child to scale with him. As they drew
nearer, he finished with the branches and turned to his companion, then
hoisted her into his hands and tossed her straight up into the air with a
laughing "Alleyoop!", the brown sash of her outfit trailing behind.

"Ryoga?" "Linna?" Recognition flared for Hiryuko and Nene at almost the
same moment from their perches in the boughs of a golden oak, where'd
they'd paused on spotting the newcomers. Seeing her friend reach the high
point of the toss and start to descend, Nene leapt down and into the
clearing, despite not really having any idea what she might do to break the
other girl's fall. No sooner had she reached the ground, however, than
Linna's kiai as she severed the top of the tree with a knife-hand strike
brought her attention firmly back to the airbourne Knight Saber, and she
watched incredulously as the girl repeated the process several more times
as she fell, knocking body length pieces of trunk free to fall in a stack
on the far side, even as the giant caught her up again and spun her around
in congratulation. Set on her feet once more, the dark-haired Saber waved
and ran to meet her.

Linna's body language seemed different, slightly more awkward and
childlike, despite the display of martial prowess she'd just put on, and
her voice was high-pitched to match when she enthused, "Hiya Nene! Hiya
Mrs. Kagami!"

The brown sash still moved oddly behind her, and Nene suddenly realized
that for some reason, Linna had dreamt herself with a tail. It wasn't the
first time a dreamer had impinged on the island's corner of the Realm
Between, so she recognised the phenomenon, but it was still unexpected.
"Er, hi Linna," she replied uncertainly. "What're you doing?"

"Uncle Hibiki's been teaching me how to cut wood for next winter. Isn't it
cool?"

Blinking, Nene looked at the stack of logs, the giant man, and back to her
freind. "Oh... Ah, okay. If you say so..." Needless to say, her
wierd-a-meter was reading rather high at the moment. *Wow... I wonder how
accurate all this is...* she thought privately.

"Hibiki?", her mother repeated. "Ryoga Hibiki?'

Cocking his head and rubbing the back of his neck, the dream-construct
replied, "Yes, that's me. Do I know you, Miss? Are you lost?"

"Probably not, and no, we know where we are." the older redhead replied.

"Ah... Heh... Okay, then. I'll leave you girls to play for a while, in that
case. Make sure you come back to the cabin before dark, okay?"

"Don't worry Uncle! We'll be fine!", Linna assured him before turning back
to her freinds. Almost immediately, the construct turned to leave, picked
up the entire pile of logs, and dissipated into a few curls of mist that
quickly cleared, as did the remaining stump and the loose boughs. "Oh no,"
she said, looking suddenly worried. "He'll probably get lost again without
me to guide him back... Uncle has a terrible sense of direction," she
confided.

"Oh, I'm sure he'll be all right," Hiryuko said. "He always finds his way
eventually, right?"

"Yeah..." Linna reluctantly agreed. Brightening, she suggested, "Wanna play
Hide and Seek Tag? I play it with Uncle all the time! Nene, you hide and
I'll look for you. Ready? I'll count to ten..."

As Linna closed her eyes and started counting, Nene cast her mother a
perplexed look. Getting a raised eyebrow, a shooing gesture, and a silent
admonition of "Training" in reply, she once again took to the trees and
bounced off at high speed, Linna following a few seconds later after
finishing her count, and Hiryuko bemusedly trailing.

--=--

As the sourceless daylight of the island began to fade towards its night
cycle, Nene, Linna, and Hiruko had retired to the mansion carved into the
peak of the tallest of the cliffs for an early dinner. As they finished off
the chilled fruit that made up dessert, Nene turned thoughtful for a
moment, gathering a bit of courage, then asked, "Linna, can I ask you a
question?"

"Sure Nene," other Knight Saber replied, adjusting her bandanna in an
attempt to get her hair back down from the wild spikes their active
afternoon had left it in. "You're my friend; you can ask me anything."

Taking heart, the redhead continued, "Well, I was just wondering... Why do
you have a tail? It's kinda neat, but you have to admit it is a little
unusual."

Uncoiling the furry brown appendage from her waist, Linna let it curl in
the air beside her as she regarded it for a long momnet, before turning
back to Nene and shrugging. "I dunno," she answered. "I've always had a
tail. It helps me balance and stuff, and I usually just tuck it under my
top when I go somewhere with Uncle Hibiki. He says most people don't  have
one, but that's okay..." She blushed slightly, but continued, "He says it's
cute because it's mine, and not to worry about it. I really should get
going, it'll be dark soon and he doesn't like it if I'm not back before
then. I had lotsa fun today Nene, will you come see me again soon?"

Reminded of her (percieved) failiure, Nene looked down, and played with her
empty glass before replying. "Well, I have a lot of training to do... I'll
have to see..."

"Please?" Linna's expression turned pleading. "Uncle says it's good to take
a break from training sometimes, so you don't get obsessed, ("And he would
know," muttered Hiryuko under her breath, before shaking her head and
starting to pile the dishes on a tray) and it's lonely sometimes at the
cabin... Won't you come?"

"Well, I... I'll try to see you again soon, okay?" Nene affirmed.

"Hooray! We'll look forward to seeing you! Maybe I can even get Uncle to
play the pipes for you next time!" Rising from the table, both Sabers
headed for the dining room door, but Linna faded away before reaching it as
her dream ended and her spirit returned to her body.

Seeing this, Nene returned to the table to help her mother put away the
dinner things, only to find the meal she'd just seen her friend eat still
there on the dish, which was promptly covered in plastic wrap and set aside
on the tray. "Mother, was Linna's uncle the Ryoga you told me about," she
asked, "the one who was always chasing after you and dad - well, the one of
you - for revenge?"

"Yeah... He was a real pain in the butt, but him and Ukyo were about the
closest things we had to freinds back then. For all the death threats he
yelled, it was more of a freindly rivalry... He was a really strong
fighter, even if he was no match for us. No wonder Linna has such a
powerful ki if she's related to him... It wouldn't be a suprise if that
whole woodcutting scene actually happened if he was teaching her, though
aerial techniques were always Ryoga's weak area - heh, that's probably why
he came up with it."

---=- + -=---

Linna woke to find that a songbird had found its way into the noise and
bustle of the city, and taken refuge perched in the climbing roses that
lined the side of the building. Even now, its spritely voice rang out from
just outside the window, a small bastion of nature in the industrialized
surroundings. Scraps of her dream still stuck in her memory as she sat up,
yawned, and rubbed her eyes.  "Nene?" she murmured as she pulled on the
waiting plush robe, before heading toward the bathroom.

She continued in this thoughtful mood as she slipped it off again in the
entryway, then paused as she caught sight of herself in the full-length
mirror. She let her eyes run the length of her reflection, noticing that
her muscular definition seemed to be a bit more pronounced than she
remembered, though she was still anything but bulky. The second mirror was
carefully angled to reflect from the one on the opposite wall and show her
back view, a cute trick in her opinion, and handy.

Looking over her rear aspect she stopped again in realisation as she came
to the tops of her buttocks and spotted the small knob of scar tissue. *A
tail... I really did have one, didn't I?*, she thought. *My foster family
thought it was just imagination, the product of getting cut there when that
mugger attacked... but it was true. I remember now...* Brushing back a
recalcitrant spike of hair as she headed into the shower, she wondered to
herself, "But why _would_ I dream about playing tag with Nene?"

The running water brought no answers, but did at least make the questions
feel less overbearing.

---=- + -=---

Shutting off the shower, Sylia snagged a pair of towels off the rack -
seriously depleted now, with four others having been through before her -
to wrap her hair and dry herself. She'd awakened to the quiet click of her
door closing, and that strange, penetrating visual sense had shown her that
it was Dr. Vector leaving and heading downstairs. After giving him time to
get out of sight, she worked her way upright - despite the protests of her
sore, stiff muscles - nabbed a robe from the closet, and headed for the
shower herself. She could hear the others downstairs surprisigly clearly,
though they were just having a quiet, casual conversation over a late
breakfast. She felt immensely better after a session under the soothing,
warm spray, and her stomache reminded her not to dawdle in joining them.

The slight awkwardness she'd noticed in her reactions before was pronounced
now, but with good reason - she'd gained a good three inches of height,
which had been the cause of her torture the evening before, muscles and
connective tissue protesting the stretching as her skeleton lengthened. Her
vision remained overlaid with multiple spectra, but by concentrating on her
image in the mirror she found that it didn't actually obscure anything; it
was more as if she'd gained a few more pairs of eyes and composited them
automatically just like everyone combined the images from their left and
right eyes.

Letting the towels fall, she looked over her new appearance. It was almost
as if she'd gone half way to being an albino, with shimmering, steel-blue
hair (still her old midnight blue at the tips) that gave all signs of being
her new natural color, much paler skin, lavender eyes, and rosy pink lips.
Taking note of the cooling air, she left off the examination, and snuggled
back into the fluffy bathrobe.

That problem dealt with, she turned to the question of what to do with her
hair. It had grown out to perhaps half the length of her Cecilia
Ishioka-Wayne wig, and in fact matched the color fairly well save for the
darker tips. While she always had liked the way that wig looked on her,
having it that long wouldn't be practical for a hardsuit helmet - the main
reason for her former short 'do. Really, it was about as long as she could
reasonably keep it right now. *Ah well, it's hardly the most important
thing on the agenda,* she thought, picking up the pace back to her room and
the fresh outfit she knew would be waiting for her there.

---=- + -=---

Priss wasn't sure what to feel as she quietly munched on a slice of toast,
waiting for Sylia and the doctor to finish talking so they could tell
everyone else what was going on. There was no arguing that the shit had hit
the fan yesterday, and by all rights she should be pissed as all hell, but
she didn't really have a target for her anger, and for once just being
angry wasn't enough.

Brian Mason had put a face on Genom's evil as even Quincy failed to do,
having been personally involved in directing most of the recent operations,
but he was dead, incinerated and knocked off a few hundred storeys of
skyscraper.

She couldn't really be mad at Nene after the way the girl had beaten
herself up over her own inadequecy, after doing better than she ever had
before in combat.

She'd even put the lights out on that damn buma that had been following her
around, and at worst the thing hadn't held her up enough to have made a
difference.

The singer was roused from her sour thoughts by the sight of Sylia entering
the room, still moving a bit stiffly, and looking rather like the disguise
she'd sprung on them a few days previous, though not as overdressed. Dr.
Vector was also with her, and remained standing as she joined Linna, Priss,
and her brother on the couch.

"Mistress Wayne has asked me to explain her condition to you," he began,
"and I should start by saying that --" He cut off as an oily, blue-black
distortion formed in the air between himself and the others. As Nene and
her parents stepped out of it his eyes bugged out, his jaw dropped, and in
short order the rest of him followed, landing in a shocked pile on the
armchar he'd been standing in front of.

Nene was dressed in the same sort of outfit as the one she and Linna had
appeared in from their previous trip to the Realm Between; black slippers
and loose pants, dark blue arm and head bands, and a quilted red silk top
with a white circle on the back, the kanji for 'stormy air-dragon' printed
inside. Stopping directly in front of Sylia, she knelt and bowed until her
forehead pressed the floor. Linna seemed puzzled by it, while Sylia looked
more regretful. For her part, Priss was incredulous that Nene would think
such a thing was neccessary. They were all friends, and everything had come
out OK, hadn't it?

"Nene..." she muttered, sounding irritated, but a quelling look from Sylia
silenced her.

Taking no notice of the singer for the moment, Nene remained in her bow.
"Sylia, I'm sorry," she began. "I was supposed to be your backup, but I let
myself get tied up in my own fight, and it almost cost you our life. I can
only hope you forgive me someday, but if you don't... want me on the team
anymore... I'll... I'll understand..." Teardrops stained the hardwood floor
at the thought of leaving her freinds, but she stayed resolute until a
gentle hand clasped her shoulder and tugged upward.

Pulling the youngest Knight Saber into a sitting position, Sylia calmly
replied, "That won't be neccessary, Nene." She actually smiled a bit s she
wiped tear tracks from her freind's face, an added, "Besides, how could we
do without your good looks and amazing brain?" Seeing the look of relief on
the girl's face, she pulled her into a hug for just a moment. "Now have a
seat you three, and Dr. Vector can get back to his explanation."

The doctor had recovered his composure, and took the cue as soon as the
newcomers had arranged themselves despite burning curiosity about just how
they'd arrived. "Yes, well, as I had begun to say, the first thing that you
should be aware of is that while Ms. Wayne's recent injury certainly forced
it to hurry along, this transformation had in fact already begun before it
happened, and is the result of a condition that we have been aware of for
several years - the reason she made me her personal physician, in fact."

He paused a moment to arrange himself more comfortably in the chair, then
continued, "As nearly as we can tell, both she and her brother were exposed
to an experimental human augmentation program, a 'super-soldier formula' if
you will, combining retroviral genetic manipulation with nanomachines to
attempt a long-term enhancement of their bodies and minds. This process
appears to have several stages to it, the first being relatively slight.
Young master Maxwell is nearing the end of that stage, the only benefit he
currently has is an immune system that would do a tazmanian devil proud.
The second stage was induced early in mistress Cecelia by her stepfather's
data-tape; it engaged enhanced reflexes, memory, and computational ability,
and stepped up her immune system even more - though it never became
neccessary, I have no doubt that she could have regenerated from any injury
short of decapitation with adequate life support in the interim, and
possibly even that if blood flow to the brain could be restored promtply
enough and the head reattatched. Instead, when she was injured with the
transition to the third stage already underway, that process was
accellerated considerably, compressing several months worth of change into
a few hours, an understandably tiring and painful process."

Decidedly nonplussed by the whole conversation, Priss broke in to say, "Are
you telling us that by this time next year Syl- ah, Cecilia would have had
this happen anyway?"

"That's right, Priss," the woman in question replied. "Actually, I find it
suprisingly unobjectionable... I always did wish I was a bit taller, and
the condition in general is something we've been folowing for a long time,
so I knnew something of the sort was possible. It will mean redesigning
some equipment, but I suspect that would be neccessary in any case."

"You're correct in that," Dr. Vector continued. "Your new body's muscles
are reinforced with synthetics, as is your skeleton. Based on the
benchmarks master Maxwell gave me, you should now be somewhere between
eight to ten times stronger in your bathrobe than the armor suit we peeled
you out of last night. Naturally, there is going to be a period of
adjustment, and I want none of your 'elegantly reserved' business, miss
Wayne." He indicated the rest of the assembly with a quick wave, before
continuing, "All of these people are your friend, and as your doctor i am
ordering you to accept their support and talk with them when you have
problems. Also, you are not to engage in any armored escapades untill I
clear your reflex coordination. Am I clear?"

Sylia hid a soft smile behind one hand, then replied, "Very clear, Doctor.
What about Mason, though? I've remembered more of the fight, and while he
unquestionably had boosted strength if he was as strong as you say he
should have been able to punch right through me, not just damage my
hardsuit."

Nodding at the point, T.T. replied, "Without his remains to examine there
can be no definitve answer to that, but from the accounts of the fight it
doesn't sound like he was trying to end it quickly... Furthermore, he does
not have access to your own designs; designs which are a generation or more
in advance of the best Genom has produced. The process isn't magic, and it
doesn't have any intelligence but your own. The best sytems it can create
for you are the best you can invent or understand yourself."

"I see," Sylia murmured. Moving on slightly, she began, "That brings up
sonmething else - some good news for a change. During the battle, Mason
told me that he had only deduced my own identity when the demolition
charges were set off at Lady 633. Since Priss's ... unusual freind has
since shown up again and been disposed of, and since no investigation has
been made of the false fronts used for your phone calls, it should be safe
enough for the rest of you to resume your normal lives, cautiously.
Unfortunately, whether or not Mason told anyone about me, enough suspiciou
materials will be found in t e wreckage of the old headquarters building
that Sylia and Mackie Stingray will have to remain missing, presumed dead.
It's fortunate that I had already altered our records to hide the
connections to our mother's previous marriage, or the core of the
organization might have been exposed."

Priss just huffed in annoyance that the whole fiasco had happened at all,
resolutely not thinking about Sylia's own problems for the moment. "It's
about damned time," she grumbled. "The Reps are gonna be pissed I was away
this long,  we usually practise every day, show or not."

Mackie too was unenthusiastic, though he at least had the excuse of having
to get used to using a new identity, though he'd had some experience as
'Maxwell Ishioka-Wayne' before. "Oh well," he rationalised, "at least this
will give me more time to work with the components I kept from that wierd
intruder..." On that note, the meeting broke up as the Sabers all made
preparations to get back to living.

---=- + -=---

Sylvie's shuttle had shown up sooner than they'd expected, bringing a load
of consumables from Earth and picking up a load of electronics components
bound for the fledgeling moon base. This was both good and bad, good in
that it meant they could get to laying plans right away, bad in that a trip
to the moon would take weeks, and usualy meant waiting upwards of a month
before heading back, and therefore the actual breakout would be hard to
time exactly, and would have to be kept a secret for an unknown length of
time as well. Not that they were unused to keeping secrets, Nam mused, as
she put away her Biomainteence duty uniform, but this time they had to hide
hardware as wel as knowledge, and she'd almost had the sonic blasters Meg
gave her discovered once already.

Setting aside the medical whites, she left her small cubbyhole - a space
barely big enough for a single person to stand or lie down, crammed into
the space between two banks of machinery near the station's hull - and made
her way through the back corridors to the same gym she and Meg had used to
test their upgraded software. She'd had second shift tonight, and as usual
ended up staying after the human doctor on duty had left to finish up
paperwork, meanig she'd be the last to arrive, and that - as before -
anyone who could manage it was asleep or in self-maintenence shutdown,
which amounted to the same thing. Therefore, she made it unmolested down
the number four axial slidewalk and to the Lower Ring gymnasium. As
expected, everyone was there already, Priss and Anri in thier flightsuits,
Meg in a multicolored yellow jacket and miniskirt over a black body
stocking with thin white trim stripes that one of the men on board had
gotten for her (admittedly, for the pleasure of taking it off of her, but
she liked it all the same - a little slice of freedom) while Lou, Mina,
Hyatt, Dot and herself were in normal off-duty uniforms.

Meg quickly called them to order so she coul explain the plan she'd come up
with. "I know I've talked to all of you before about what we're planning,
but I wanted to get everyone together at once to see if anyone could come
up with problems we haven't seen yet, or better solutions to what we have.
First off, I managed to find the schedule for the project you're gonig to
be waiting for on the moonbase, Sylvie and Anri, so we have some idea of
when you'll be back - it looks like it won't be until April, which should
give the rest of us time to set everything up. The project seemsto have
been right on schedule since the beginning, and it's only waiting for the
components you'll be bringing for final assembly. At that point it'll be
loaded into the Orca II and delivered to Earth, with only a short layover
here for refueling after the transfer from lunar orbit. Naturally, that's
where the rest of us get on."

"While you're cooling your heels on the moon, I'll be planting littl
presents in the computer system to make sure as much of the security force
as possible is drawn off to the wrong end of the station when it's
showtime... Mina, you're a dispatcher, so I'll want your advice on what
alarms to set off and how. You've also mentione the possibility of getting
us some gear from the armory; if you can do it that may make all the
difference, even if it's just an armored vest or a single SMG... The rest
of you just have to be ready to move when the time comes."

"The main problem with this is that I have to be off duty when the shuttle
is ready to leave, or I won't be able to get off the bridge... but if I'm
not on the bridge, I won't know when the refueling is complete. Sylvie,
Anri, you'll have to come and tell us so I can set everything off when it's
time, and let everyone know. If you arrange to arrive in time for the
second shift crew to finish the maintenence just before they leave, no one
will expect you to launch until first shift the next day, and during third
shift I can reserve the gym again so we can use it as a staging area. It's
a bit far from the spaceport, but if we can steal a hovercar the number
four shaft is practically right beside us here."

"Well, that's the best I could comme up with... We're lovers with roses,
not soldiers with guns, but it may be the only chance we'll have. If anyone
has better ideas, this is the time for them, while our pilots are here."

Hyatt nodded once, then remarked, "I suppose--" she was interrupted by a
couching fit, and a small trickle of depleted blood leaked down from one
side of her mouth. She wiped it away and braced herself against a weight
machine before repeating,  "I suppose we'll have to learn to be soldiers of
roses, then, or lovers with guns."

"Nothing says love like high caliber weapons," concurred Mina cheerfully.

Meg wasn't amused, however, and frowned as she scolded, "Look Hyatt, you
know you can trust Nam and Lou with your systems, and you'll be a liability
to all of us if you collapse in the middle of things, or even just get foud
out between now and then. Go to Biomaintence and your blood suply and
filtration system overhauled, or you might not even live to see it."

"I... I will," the dark-haired sexaroid replied, brown eyes downcast.
"Just... Look in the shedule, and set a timewhen Dr.  Barnaby won't be
there. He's... He makes me... He's just evil!" Worn out by even that slight
outburst, Hyatt sank to her knees with another coughing fit, a larger
trickle of dark, expended blood spattering to the floor. Lou and Nam shared
a shudder as well at the mention of Bloodsucker Barnaby, well known for his
peerverse and sadistic 'operations' on buma that were only supposed to be
in bio for minor problems. Both of them had had to clean up the resulting
mess, and sometimes help put the victims back together - physically,
anyway, the mental trauma was usually enough to drive them rogue within a
few weeks, though as yet the doctor had managed to hide the relationship
from the chain of command. With no more to be said, the group broke up,
heading out at intervals to various parts of the station.

---=- + -=---

Somewhere in the Kanto Canyons, a drunk stumbled unsteadily down the side
of a pile of rubble towards a partialy intact building, hoping to find a
bit of shelter for the night. He mumbled as he went, a running litany of
semicoherent ramblings, without really being aware of it. Reaching the
ruin, he clambered awkwardly over a collapsed door, cursig as he stumbled
and dropped the bottle in in his left hand, thoguh it was close enough to
empty that none of the cheap sake inside spilled. He foud his footing, then
bent over to reclaim it, pausing as he heard a scuffling noise from a
corner. Peering blearily into the shadows, he made out the faint outline of
something four legs, that rumbled at him questioningly. He blink at it,
then gave it a wide, wasted smile. "Jus' a doggie," he pronouced, with the
false profundity of the seriously drunk. "Good doggie... Yer not gonna hurt
ol' Orlando are ya? I like doggies..." He felt his way over to the dark
corner, where the cieling had stayed intact and kept a small patch of floor
clear of rubble, and reached out to pat a hand against the creature in the
corner. It rumbled again, on a decending note. "Yer kinda cold, doggie. We
should sleep wi' our' backs together so ya can sztay warmer... Fall's comin
on an it's gonna be too cold for outside soon. Too cold for doggies... Too
cold for Orlando." He sat on the cold, hard floor, next to the cold, hard
doggie, and wrapped an arm around it companionably. It was a big doggie. "I
had a couple big doggies once, when I had a big house, an' a business to
run... I was somebody once, before... Just before. I'll tell ya 'bout it
doggie; guess any secrets I got left are safe with you, hey?"

Recording the human's rambling story mainly in the hope that it might
somehow assist in peicing together some part of its scrabled archives, the
badly damaged Royal Guardian sat silently and continued repairing itself.


-----------------------------

Be sure you tune in next time, when Sylia resurrects a long-lost part of
her daddy's legacy to combat the Griffon. No, not Katsuhito Stingray, her
*biological* father. Only on Bubblegum Disaster!

-----------------------------


'A warrior's spirit' ... You can probably hear me snickering over that one
from there.

I'm not sure where the heck I came up with the odd wildlife for this part -
the whole thing felt like I was writing a Myst-ripoff game script, but with
actual hazards rather than a pastoral paradise to wander around in at will.
Sometime I want to have one of the flying fish be a pet like a bird in a
cage - having a little glass tank at the bottom to live in, and a planter
box to play around. It'll be a bug-eater rather than a pollinator, snapping
up crickets from the plant and spitting water at wormholes to make them
come out to be caught. It'll also be on the intelligent side, like a
parrot, able to recognise people and make various croaking noises. I do
not, however, expect it to play any major part in anything, given that the
Sabers have Cynthia for those mascot/sidekick moments, and she has Huggy
Mazinbear.

No, Linna isn't getting stronger in her sleep because she's dreaming her
way to the Kagami estate training grounds, she's just connecting with the
ki flows that Kami-sama straightened out for her. Since that aspect of
things is operating under martial arts show rules, all she requires is
refamiliarization and practising control with the big chunk of pure
life-force she now has available to go way up the power scale. Given that
this version of Linna was already in the kind of physical condition that
real-world atheletes can only dream of, I'm sure you can imagine for
yourself where she's headed. If not, it gets spelled out very clearly by
the time the DD shows up, so you won't have to hold your breath too long.

No, you hentais, Linna and Sylia weren't in the shower together, it just
seemed like a good way to do a time lapse. You'll just have to make do with
the mirror scenes.

A tazmanian devil can lose about a third of its body mass and recover
completely. Actual fact. They look more like badgers than the Warner
Brothers character, though.

Mina, Hyatt, and Dot - yes, these are 20-something versions of Minako of
Sailor Moon, Hyatt of Excel Saga, and R. Dorothy of The Big O in cameo
roles. Hey, at least they get a little more screen time then Belldandy did,
right? I was actually tempted to switch all the sexaroids around and retcon
Cynthia to be the Inner and Outer Senshi, and make Mamoru and Setsuna the
couple Sylvie... meets... in the park. But, that would be crossig over for
the sake of crossing over, which I'm bound and determined not to do, and of
course everyone would be getting on my case for killing most of the
Senshi... All in all, a bad scene, even if it might eventually give me the
option of using the attack phrase "Venus Special Beam Cannon, FIRE!"

Likewise, Meg's outfit is indeed the one A-ko wears in the last movie - she
looks the part, an thanks to the upgrade has the speed if not the strength,
so I figured why not.

Orlando the Drunk is a ... homage ... to another BGC fic, the most I can
say about which is that Elmer Studios saw fit to MST it. The only purpose
he serves in either case is to mumble semi-coherently and the
author-created character someone to interact with in the scene, so I
figured why not? At least 215 isn't an SI...

Guardian 215 should be imagined with the vocal talents of Susan Blu; 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.

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 the 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, Dragonball
was created by Akira Toriyama, and is distributed in the US on video by
FUNimation. I THINK that both Ranma and Dragonball comics are done by Viz
in the US, but that may be incorrect.

I haven't a clue who owns Ah! Megami-sama! except that it's not me, and
aside from the one cameo it's really not involved anyway.

The Bionic Six is similarly of unknown provenance, but I have a very vague
and unreliable memory that it may have been animated by Suncoast video...
In any case, it's STILL not my own creation.

_Dykstra's War_ is by Jeffery D Kooistra, published by Baen Books.

Excel Saga was created by Koshi Rikdo, and is distributed as anime in the
US by ADVision.

Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuichi, as well as being owned by
some animation company or other.

I have absolutely no idea who The Big O belongs to... Sorry.

-----------------------------



EOF


--
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          A  A  R  D  ||  V  A  R  K     daily kick in the ass! VROOOOOOOOOM!



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