Maximum Polarity - Drums of War - Part 2
A Bubblegum Crisis/Crash Fanfiction.

What has gone before. Nene Romanova had been discovered to be an
informative for the Knight Sabers. It was later deduced by the ADP,
that she was actually the 'Pink' Knight Saber. Someone within Genom
acted quickly and ruthlessly, kidnapping Nene's parents and leaving a
trap for the Knight Sabers when they showed up. Sylia Stingray was
nearly killed in the resulting blast. Until the status of Nene's
parents could be determined, Nene was captured by her own teammates
and kept sedated.

A strange electromagnetic storm burst into existence over Genom tower,
dropping two visitors to this dimension. One, Polarion by name, is a
megalomaniac conqueror with the power of magnetism and a genius of
technological craftsmanship. The other is the young hero who goes by
the name of Maxim. Genom is quite interested in these unusual people
and begins to gather as much information as possible.
The Knight Sabers try to rescue Nene's parents, but fail to arrive in
time. Sylia discovers the proof that she needed on a special project
within Genom. Genom now has the ability to 'copy' the psyche of a
human being, and imprint them into a boomer's mind. Genom copied the
Romanova's minds and then had them killed. The Knight Sabers barely
escape the tower with the information, with Sylia exhibiting signs of
mental stress dealing with the newly learned information.

Genom also attempts to either kill or kidnap anyone related to Nene
Romanova. Mackie Stingray barely survives an attempt on his life and
heads back to MegaTokyo to find out what is going on from Germany.
Linna Yamazaki attempts to commit suicide after the stress of her
Knight Saber duties, and being black listed out of her chosen
profession. Sylia starts to work with her to find a different
solution, bringing her closer to the Knight Sabers.

Priss Asigari saves Maxim from a duo of boomers, and is confronted by
Leon McNichol about working as a Knight Saber. Leon admits to feelings
for the intrepid rock star.

Maxim's powers have begun to fluctuate and she is also being hunted by
the police. Human genetic engineering has been outlawed as too
dangerous and all viable (ie. living) experiments are to be
terminated.

After Maxim deals with a planetary doomsday weapon left over from
Largo's rise to power, she is sentenced for immediate death. The USSD
and the UN Council decide to eliminate this new threat, eventually
hiring Polarion to help deal with the perceived threat. Polarion leads
her into a trap, and is almost killed with her on the remains of Aqua
City by an orbital satellite attack from the USSD. Nene is almost
killed but manages to have some of Maxim's power transferred into her
as Maxim dies. She is confronted by the ADP, but Leon let her go,
which gets him put on suspension. Polarion, after barely surviving the
ambush, vows revenge on the USSD and this world.

Nene uses the new technology to imprint the memories of her mother
into one of the motoroids.
Genom attempted to destroy the Knight Sabers and to foster an image of
being an 'attacked' and 'maligned' party. They used one of Nene's
captured co-workers and transformed her into a cyborg, and set her up
as an anti-Genom terrorist in charge of a group of boomers, using a
new DD Battlemover. She was supposed to be killed by the ADP,
effectively being a PR boon to the megacorp. The Knight Sabers
interfered, and fled a confrontation with the ADP. They manage to save
the ex-ADP officer. Nene discovers that she is now haunted by Maxim,
who is an energy entity that has bonded to her.

The Knight Sabers acquire five sexeriods, and the technology to copy
psyches without cyber-implants. The Knight Sabers were also hired by
the USSD to find Polarion, who is now considered to be a grave threat
to humanity. Admiral Harrison of the USSD figures out that Sylia
Stingray is the leader of the Knight Sabers. He uses this knowledge to
blackmail her into designing new hardsuits to counter the rising
threat of Genom's technological superiority.

Leon, Priss and Linna meanwhile manage to find out information of
cheap, rebuilt combat boomers being sold to gangs, and criminal
organizations. Leon also manages to get a line on Polarion. He's in a
warehouse where he has been constructing some sort of device in his
plot of world domination, and revenge. The Knight Sabers (which now
include Mackie in his old hardsuit), attempt to infiltrate and verify
Polarion's location. As they are sneaking into his base, Polarion
activate his super weapon. Using nanites, Polarion grows the center
spire of a gigantic magnetic force field generator.

Polarion's new weapon quickly encompasses most of Japan, repulses
first orbital lasers bombardment and then nuclear weapons. In a show
of force, Polarion captures several of the nuclear weapon being used
against him. Using the force fields, he can generate massive lightning
bolts to destroy buildings anywhere within Japan. His first target is
the USSD.

The Knight Sabers attacked and ambushed Polarion, forcing a physical
confrontation. Distracting him long enough, Nene planted a computer
virus to take control of his force field generator temporarily. The
Knight Sabers escape moments before Polarion is destroyed by one of
his captured nuclear warheads, directing the explosion high above
MegaTokyo. Linna is hospitalized due to injuries suffered during the
escape.

Naoko Fuchi (Nene's old co-worker) enters into police custody of the
ADP to attack Genom's reputation for using her in the fake terrorist
attack and setting her up to be killed.

Sylia came through on her new hardsuit designs for the USSD, and
delivered them personally to Admiral Harrison of the USSD. They are
again hired to find out some information on stolen technology from
some of Polarions' force field installations.

The Boomer Messiah virus manages to infiltrate Genom, taking over the
OMS (Over Mind-Control System) that has been secretly running Genom
since the death of Quincy years ago. While the virus is in the process
of taking over, the OMS manages to warn Katherine Madigan of its
impending demise. She manages to survive and escapes the assassins
sent to kill her, fleeing to MegaTokyo.

Early that next morning, the Knight Sabers infiltrated the shuttle
carrying the contraband. They realize too late that they are in trap,
when they are attacked by Lazarus, the true Boomer Messiah. Outside,
dozens of combat boomer converge on the shuttle, intent on killing the
Knight Sabers. In a desperate escape attempt, the Knight Sabers launch
the shuttle into orbit. Lazarus managed to interface with the stolen
equipment, causing the shuttle to disappear in flash of light while
entering orbit.

And now, on to part two!

-pagebreak-
	10 seconds: Infiltration detected. Assessing threat.
	8 seconds: System infiltration at 50%. Threat rating, Ultra-High.

Days ago, deep within the bowls of Genom, a massive marvel of
technical engineering of a previous decade sat quietly. Gray mainframe
boxes sat in rows, filling a large room. Cables snaked in between
them. The only physical access to this room was through large armored
doors. Those same doors had not been entered in almost a year.

	7 seconds: Antiviral algorithms are only slowing the spread. The
infection is adapting faster than the internal systems could.
	5 seconds: System infiltration at 65%. Unable to stop the attack.
	3 seconds: Two seconds of planning has evidenced a low probability of
stopping the 'Messiah Virus.' Contacting Katherine Madigan and
initiating the plan.
	1 second: Purging the OMS of all information pertaining to Stingray
and his heirs. 75% probability that that attacker is already aware of
their existence. Purging itself of Class A data and all plans for
taking over the human systems of government.

The OMS lamented for the last tenth of a second. It had had such grand
plans for humanity.

-pagebreak-

Mackie slammed the truck to a stop, killing the engine as he jumped
out of the cab of the semi truck. He dashed into the back area of the
Silky Doll, locking down the secure entrance as he went. He ran up the
stairs as fast as possible. Entering into the computer core, he
slammed into the seat with total disregard for life and limb.

"Come on, faster," Mackie said, trying to coax even more speed out of
the huge computer. Finally, he got the screens recording several
public channels, and tapping into the ADP secure frequencies. The news
coming across the screens in front of him was not reassuring.
 
The ADP fought for their lives against three boomers that had survived
the Knight Sabers escape. It would take them at least an hour to
finish up. Luckily their heavy weapons were already on the way.

The phone started to ring suddenly. Mackie reached over and grabbed the phone. 

"Hello, darling. I just thought I'd call and let you know that my
flight is going to be a bit late. I guess I'll just have to watch the
show for know. Do you want me to bring back some pictures?" Nina
asked, over the phone when Mackie picked up the line.

"Sure. I'll see you tonight, then. Later," Mackie said, finishing the
call. Nina was becoming a little odd. Somehow he got the feeling that
she thought that she was some sort of spy and that this was some sort
of game. When she was on duty, she tended to be overly melodramatic.

Sitting in the cockpit of the Skycarrier, Nina Romanov giggled. She
was sure that Mackie would be able to tell her where and when to pick
them up soon. It was so fun. She felt like she was a young girl again.
Never tired and so full of energy.

Mackie continued to sort out all the different conflicting sources of
information. Several things became apparent. The Knight Sabers had
been betrayed somewhere. And somehow, they had attempted to extract
themselves in a unique manner. The shuttle hadn't exploded. It was as
if it had just disappeared. And the information he was getting wasn't
clear enough to tell if it had been vaporized, or somehow transported
somewhere far away.

>From the information they'd been able to glean from Meg, faster then
light travel was easily possible when you could control gravity. So
they could be just about anywhere, and Mackie wouldn't have any way of
finding them.

"Damn!" Mackie yelled, slamming his fist into the console. He tried to
calm down. Finally, he slumped into the chair. Where had they gone
wrong?

-pagebreak-

Leon was seriously thinking about retiring. "Where the hell is our
backup?" He yelled over roar of automatic gunfire. Daley Wong glanced
over at him with a scowl and shrugged. He then snapped off a quick
shot with his handgun, trying to disable a boomer's sensors. They'd
been entrenched for almost a half an hour, trying to keep themselves
alive.

Leon could swear that the boomers were playing with them. He stood up,
and snapped off a shot with his handgun. He stepped back behind the
truck and reloaded his gun.

Leon was analyzing the boomer's attacks, and tactics. They were good,
but still not the best in the world. But then again, you didn't need
the best when you had enough firepower on your side. Leon tilted his
head to the side, straining to make out the voice over his radio
through the hash of static. Something about the USSD sending out some
reinforcements. Finally.

Leon got his answer, when high-speed attack helicopters blazed into
the area. Emblazoned with the symbol for the USSD, they came in fast
and furious. Each one dropped a single hardsuited figure onto the
ground without even slowing their strafe. The dark gray figures landed
easily, skidding to a halt without harm.
Leon's hair started to stand on end. Those looked a lot like male
versions of Sylia's hardsuits. Maybe just a touch bulkier and
definitely not as individualized.

"Alpha-two, you are go," the lead one said, firing a snap shot at the
nearest boomer with an arm cannon. Its shot damaged the boomer, but
didn't drop it.

"Roger, alpha-one. Beta group's ETA is two minutes. Let's buy these
ground hogs some time. Time to get dangerous," the second figure said,
ducking to the side. He laid down some covering fire, zigzagging
between the rubble. The second boomer decided to charge into melee
with him, analyzing the new threat as more dangerous than the ADP.

Alpha-two lived up to his promise, unsheathing some sort of blade from
his left arm. With a practiced cut, he sliced the boomers mouth
cannon, and then stabbed deeply into the boomer's chest.

The boomer wasn't going down that easily. It punched the hardsuited
figure in the chest, knocking him back thirty feet. Changing tactics,
it opened its chest cavity to reveal the heat panels inside. Alpha-two
charged while firing his arm cannon again. At the very last second, he
activated a basic shaped charge explosive on his power fist, blowing
up the boomer's chest. It finally collapsed, spewing liquids out of
the rents in its chest.

The ADP didn't just sit there while alpha-two was having his duel.
Relieved of most of the pressure, they counterattacked with skill and
determination at one of the boomers. Under a constant hail of fire,
the boomer started to show wear and tear. Finally, one of the heavier
weapons lined up just right and finished the second one off.

The third boomer tried to leave the area, but was quickly gunned down
by the two hardsuits. The air crackled with flames and creaking metal.

Leon slipped off his glasses and wiped the sweat off of his brow.
"Neat. When do we get the cool toys?" Leon asked no one in particular.

Daley snickered, and replied, "You and your toys. Didn't you get
trashed enough against the DD Battlemover and the Illegal Army?"

"Never. I'm a glutton for punishment. I thought that you knew that.
After all, I kept you as a partner, right?" Leon bantered with his
partner.

"Detective Leon McNichol? Can I speak to you privately?" the figure
coded alpha-one said, walking over.

Leon squinted at him for a second and then shrugged. He followed the
hardsuit a small distance.

Alpha-one reached into a small compartment on his hip, and pulled out
a disk. "This is for your organization. We aren't sure what happened
to the rest of your group, but I was told to give you what information
we have. Until we get different orders, Admiral Harrison wants you to
be our contact."

Leon swallowed, and then sighed. He took the disk, and then pocketed
it. He tried to calm himself down. An awning pit seemed to encompass
his stomach. "What happened?"

"That's on the disk. If we find out more, you'll be the first to find out."

-pagebreak-

The silence was deafening as the blinding light finally faded. Priss
pushed against the floor and slowly started to float away, weightless.
She shook her head and started to check out the room. She spotted
Linna floating across the room, slowly spinning away from the remains
of the 'Largo' boomer. She too seemed to be getting herself in order.
Priss vaguely remembered destroying it just before passing out.

Priss glanced around, trying to see where Nene was in her dark red
hardsuit. It was hanging limply up against the floor. "Nene?" Priss
swam ineffectually for a second. After struggling for a minute, she
finally switched her hardsuit in to weightless reaction mode. With
small bursts of her thrusters, she floated to the still hardsuit.
"Nene, are you all right?"

She flipped up Nene's visor, expecting to see her unconscious face
through the clear inner visor. She couldn't because it was covered in
a yellowish gunk, from the inside.

"Damn." Priss said quietly. Frantically Priss worked the latches on
the helmet. With a none too gentle yank; she got the helmet off of
Nene. A ragged gasp of air calmed Priss down as Nene started
breathing. Nene started to cough fitfully.

Nene awoke to coughing, vertigo and a really nasty sour taste. She
cracked her eyes open to pain and light. She closed her eyes and
moaned again. "What happened?" Nene rasped weakly.

"I dunno. I was going to ask you eggheads," Priss said with a grin of relief.

"Blue, I'm not raising White. I'm going up!" Linna said, activating
her thruster and jetting herself into the bridge area. She stopped
herself with her hands, and looked over to Sylia slumped over controls
in her white hardsuit. Her eyes seemed to be playing tricks on her,
because it looked like Sylia was quivering. As Linna jetted over to
the controls Sylia finished shaking.

"I'm... all right," Sylia finally responded weakly.

"You don't know how glad I am of that. What happened, White?" Linna asked.

Shaking her head groggily to clear it up, Sylia started to study the
controls. The navigation screen was highlighted in red and orange. As
she tapped away at the keys, more of that screen turned red. The main
screen blinked an overlay as it calculated their trajectory. Linna
flinched and started to float away accidentally.

"That doesn't look good. Please don't tell me I'm reading that right!"
Linna whispered urgently.

"Then I won't." Sylia sat quietly for a moment and then slammed a
gauntleted fist on a glass panel and flipped three switches that had
been covered by the glass. Red lights started to blink in a coded
sequence.

"How long Sylia?" Linna asked.

"Forty minutes."

The screen continued to show the trajectory and their impact point on
the North American continent.

-pagebreak-

Anthony Stark sipped at his glass of sparkling water. He cut a dashing
figure in his tuxedo, black hair trimmed short and his neatly trimmed
goatee. You almost couldn't see the gray hairs that were starting to
speckle his hair.

His party was winding down at about one in the morning and most of his
guests were already gone. Slipping in between guests, his personal
assistant managed to get to him before another of his guests
commandeered his time.

"So boss, any change in your itinerary?" Pepper Potts asked with a wry grin.

"Not so far. Either people I won't work for because of their ethics or
someone that is not willing to pay my standard fee for consultation,"
Tony replied. The beeping of a pager in a very unusual pattern
interrupted him. Palming a card from his pocket that he read quickly,
he looked up at Pepper. "I've got one of 'those' kind of emergencies
to attend to. Please inform the guests if they ask for me, Pepper."

"No problem, Tony!"

And with that he walked deeper into the house, slipping past the
kitchen and opening the door to his private office. He scanned the
room and then depressed a button on his watch. A panel opened and in
floated an odd gold and red device, for lack of a better term. "Alpha
Bravo Tango, priority ten two five one."

The softly curved device unfolded like a cocoon, becoming more
man-like in appearance. It floated up behind him, then wrapped around
him, becoming a suit of advanced armor. Quick steps led out onto the
balcony, he could see the stars clearly. A mental image was envisioned
and boot thrusters activated with a loud whine. Three dimensional
vectors and trajectory plots appeared on command in his view.

"This is going to be a little close," Tony said to himself. He hit the
mental 'engage' button, activating the navigation program. Thrusters
went from whining, to an earth-shattering roar at the same time as
imbedded gravity drives hummed to life. Breath became a struggle for
survival as the gee forces climbed.

"Iron Man, are you going to be able to make it in time?" a synthesized
voice asked over the radio.

"Just barely," Iron Man managed to gasp out. His instruments showed
him hitting 10 gravities of acceleration.

Seattle was treated to the unusual sight of a rocket winging its way
into orbit in the inky darkness of night.

-pagebreak-

"Are you all right, Nene?" Sylia asked.

Nene looked up from where she was finishing cleaning out her helmet.
"Yeah! That was so-o-o gross."

"Any sign of help?" Priss asked hopefully.

"Not yet. I'm not really holding out much hope. It would take a
miracle to save us right now. And I don't believe in miracles," Sylia
said. She still tapped at the boards, trying to find some way of
getting enough thrust to make some sort of orbit with the damaged
engines and low fuel. Or even a better angle of entry.

"So this is goodbye, huh?" Linna asked. She gulped nervously.

"No, I refuse to give up yet. We've still got about twenty minutes
before we hit atmosphere. The angle is all wrong and the heat
shielding is damaged too. But we aren't done yet."

A light started blinking on one of the side panels, signaling some
sort of message. Nene spotted it and flicked the receive switch. A
heavily distorted male voice crackled on the channel in English. "Iron
Man hailing shuttle craft on crash trajectory, please come in. Are
there any survivors?"

Nene struggled with the words for a second and then replied. "Shuttle
craft responding, we need help! Can you assist?" She slipped on her
helmet, gagging as she smelled the air in it.

Behind her, the other Knight Sabers suddenly looked up in hope.

"I'll be in contact with your ship in forty seconds. How many
passengers, and what capabilities does the shuttle have?" the voice
asked. Nene decided that it was male. It was hard to tell.

Sylia floated over. "The shuttle is damaged beyond repair. We have
four passengers. Do you have room on your craft to rescue us?" she
asked in English, with just the barest trace of an accent.

Priss tried to dredge up memories of her junior high school classes. "Damn it." 

"Negative. Do you have space suits?" the distorted voice asked. "I'll
have to blow the shuttle up if we can't get it working. It's too big
to lift at its speed!"

Nene was checking her hardsuit out, when all of her mid range sensors
blinked for a second in static. More to herself, she muttered out loud
in Japanese, "Now who is trying to jam my sensors?"

Sylia glanced over at Nene. What was she talking about?

A light flashed through the open view port, startling the Knight
Sabers for a second.

"I'm under hostile attack," Iron Man yelled. It was some sort of combat android!

Nene activated her sensor array on her back. "There's a boomer on the
outside of the shuttle! It's firing on a bogey that could be our
rescue! The bogey is either an advanced hardsuit or a boomer."

"Seal your suits and follow me! We can fight this at least!" Sylia
yelled, heading for the emergency exit hatch behind the pilot seats.
Nene was already sealed up, Priss and Linna following suit quickly.
Sylia paused just one second to make sure everyone was ready and then
blasted the door with her knuckle bomber and smashing the door into
the void. The air evacuated them all into the inky darkness with a
whoosh.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god!" Nene started to babble, vertigo washing over
her in waves. She managed to stop herself from throwing up as she flew
through space. She spun lazily, trying very hard not to panic. It was
just so big and so very, very empty.

Sylia and Priss split up, zigzagging to avoid any shots from the
boomer. Linna lined and snapped off a shot from her laser in her
gauntlet as she went straight. At the last moment, she managed to duck
the return shot from the boomer.

It crouched low to the surface of the shuttle. It was ungainly, and
larger than normal. Weird misshapen bulges adorned its surface. As
they watched, its surface rippled unnaturally, growing thicker, and
more heavily armored. It opened its mouth, cannon glowing in
preparation for firing. Suddenly it was rocked to the side by a blast
of energy. It recovered immediately and fired at the red and gold
figure that came rocketing around the other side of the shuttle.

With a quick twist, Iron Man dodged the blast and upped the power on
his repulsors into the lethal range. It made a large dent, but not
much more of an effect than that.

The boomer tried to duck a hit from Sylia's palm blasters and Priss's
lasers. Great ragged holes were gouged into the armor along its back.
Doggedly the boomer returned fire, trying to hit any of the hardsuited
figures. It sensors gave it a moments warning, just before its head
was shorn off by a monomolecular ribbon.

Linna finished her attack, spinning to the side and left for any
counter attack. A few tense moments were waited, but the boomer didn't
recover.

"I take it that is why your ship is mangled?" Iron Man asked over an
open channel.

Sylia nodded and replied in English, "Yes! Everyone is out of the
shuttle. We have only minutes before we are going to... re-enter the
atmosphere. Is your ship close?"

"No ship, but I can't let that shuttle crash. It's going to take out a
swath of Mexico City if it isn't stopped," he said urgently, his voice
modulator still disguising his voice.

"Destroy the ship." Sylia's shoulder sagged a bit. Sylia waved to the
others and gave them the signal to destroy the shuttle.

The only question was why they didn't just blast it out of the sky at
long range. The Americans have more than enough particle beam
satellites to do that.

The shuttle started to wither under the intense fire being poured into
it. The red and gold armor unleashed pulses of energy from his
gauntlets, which almost blew the shuttle in half in one blow. At
Nene's direction to her teammates, they started to hit weak points and
then with a concentrated burst of lasers, ignited the remaining fuel.
In its last death throes, explosions racked the frame, seconds before
the entire ship went up.

"Six minutes before atmosphere re-entry, Sylia." Nene's hardsuit's
sensors and onboard computers were working overtime to calculate some
way out.

"Your suits don't have enough delta-v to make it into orbit?" the
armored male asked.

"Our hardsuits don't have that sort of flight capability," Sylia said
in a tightly controlled, terse voice.

"Gather around me quickly!" Iron Man replied, checking his suits fuel
and energy levels. This was going to be entirely too close, if his
estimate was accurate. He started to shut off nonessential systems. He
held his arms out from his sides. "Grab on and keep your feet above
mine. Hold on tightly. And whatever you do, don't let go."

The Knight Sabers looked at Sylia, who nodded in acquiescence. It
couldn't hurt. Linna and Priss paired up and grabbed on to the strange
hardsuit's right arm, Sylia and Nene on the left. A glowing field
encompassed all of them, Iron Man's thrusters activating instantly.
Twin suns of brilliantly burning gasses sprang into existence from his
feet.

For tense minutes nothing seemed to happen really. Finally, the
thrusters died down with a sputter. Behind and below them, the remains
of the shuttle started to glow and fragment further. Soon they started
to become incandescent streaks in the sky.

"Are we gonna live?" Priss asked Sylia finally. Sylia looked over at
Nene and waited for a response.

"We are going to hit the upper atmosphere at a very slight angle at
high speeds. If we were in a space ship, we'd skip. As is, we're going
to burn up or melt our suits. Even if we survive, we only have twenty
minutes before we hit the atmosphere again," Nene said, strain evident
in her voice.

Iron Man replied in passable Japanese, "The force field I've extended
should allow us to 'skip'. I've got an idea, if we survive." He was
trying to frantically verify the numbers. Whoever they were, they had
some nice computing power packed in that suit. She was a literally
steps ahead of him.

"So we've got a chance?" Priss asked with a smile. This was going to
be better than riding her bike.

"So it seems," Sylia said. Now that Nene was focused on their
survival, she focused on their rescuer.

"Great. This oughta be some show!" Priss said gamely. She started to
hum a tune, thinking up some lyrics on the spot.


'Falling from the sky / we don't want to die.'

'Storms of the sky are churning / striking against the burning.'

'Riding the edge of death, avoiding her cold embrace and her breath!'

'Raging against fate / this isn't my type of date.'


'Fighting till the last.'

'Raging, raging against the dark.'

'Warriors on the edge of life and death!"

'Shooouting my refusal to lay down and dieeeee!'


Nene and Linna looked at each other. "You're insane, you know that
don't you?" Linna said plaintively. She shook her head, a small grin
sneaking onto her face. A daredevil to the end.

Further conversation was cut off as thundering, whining air struck the
force field. For two long minutes, they cut through the edge of the
atmosphere at incredibly high speeds. Air superheated and left a
glowing trail behind them. After just a few minutes, the glow finally
subsided

Iron Man sighed and relaxed. He tried to work some kinks out of his
shoulder as he checked out how long it would take for his systems to
recharge.

"We're alive!" Linna shouted.

"For another twenty minutes." Nene stared morbidly at the new countdown timer.

Tony chuckled and shook his head. He'd already exhausted his reaction
mass, but his contra-gravity generators were still working. "Let's see
if we can get somewhere first."

"Sylia! We're accelerating!" Nene screamed out in surprise.

Sylia swiveled her head towards their rescuer. "Are you behind that?"

Iron Man nodded. "I'm going to try and find someplace to set down.
There are several abandoned facilities out here and... the SHIELD
orbital platform. Let's try for that."

"What about Genaros Station?" Linna asked, thinking about the USSD.

"Sorry, that doesn't ring any bells." He'd better get on the horn and
see if they'd be welcome with SHIELD.

Sylia turned off her communications and carefully touched her helmet
to Nene's helmet. "Turn off your radio."

Nene blinked as she heard the muffled voice. She complied and yelled
back, "Sylia?"

"Good, it works! Nene, we need more information about our rescuer and
where we're headed. We might not be out of danger yet."

"Righty-o!" Nene extended her communication wings and started to
seriously try to tap into anything nearby. She had several TV
satellites in moments, but hit a jackpot when she found a telephone
communication satellite.

She blinked in surprise and rechecked what she'd found from the TV
satellites. Whistling softly to herself, she then tapped into the
world network, like a phantom slipping into a crowded school. And far,
far easier than she would have liked, she glumly thought to herself.

Let's see. He called himself Iron Man. Silly name, Nene thought to
herself. Gah! What outmoded data query engines. Let's see. For minutes
she stared at the display. This was just too odd. It was like an
episode of the old Twighlight Zone.

She touched her helmet to Sylia's. "Sylia... this is too weird! It
says we're in the past, but it isn't right! Things are... different."

"What do you mean?" Sylia asked after a moments pause.

"Well, their Internet says they have super-heroes. Like out of some
sort of comic book."

"Like Maxim?" Sylia noted dryly.

"Oh. Yeah." Nene felt a buzzing in the back of her head that sounded
suspiciously like laughter. She'd almost forgotten what Maxim had said
about other worlds and dimensions.

"Tune to 250khz, that's the frequency they use on this station for
public communication," Iron Man directed.

Suddenly the Sun was blocked from view, dragging their gaze towards
the large space station, which was painted white. Golden eagles in a
circular emblem adorned the outside. It was quite blocky, with large
solar panel and several shuttles docked in a row. They slowed down, as
they seemed to drift up to an airlock. Inside the large airlock, space
suited figures stood on the 'ground,' rifles ready but not aimed at
them.

One of the figures walked up, his footsteps odd and jerky due to
magnets holding him down. "I'm Major Brown, Iron Man. I understand
these are the refugees you were talking about?" he asked over the
radio.

The red and gold figure nodded as he shook hands. "It's been a while.
I see you've kept ahead of schedule for the construction." He held out
his Avengers ID for verification.

"We're going to have to ask them to strip off that armor while they're
aboard. Unless the can produce documentation for top-secret
clearance," the officer said with an officious tone. "This is a top
security facility."

"What?" Sylia cried out in startlement.

Major Brown turned towards her and nodded with his upper body. "Sorry,
Ma'am. Orders. If you like, we can give you some privacy so that your
identities aren't compromised."

Sylia smiled tightly to herself as she raised her visor. It was safe
to do that in the shadows here. "It's not like we wear masks under our
helmets. I am just worried about the suits themselves. They are very
expensive."

"Ah. Well, if you like, you can watch as they're stored locked away."

Sylia finally nodded, sliding the armored visor back down. With little
burst of thrusters, they maneuvered into the airlock. "Pardon me for
asking, but who exactly are you people?"

"SHIELD is an international counter-terrorism organization,
specializing in intelligence and threats that most governments aren't
capable of dealing with. Mostly international paramilitary
organizations and paranormal humans."

"I guess that makes sense." Sylia hadn't really thought about the fact
that normal humans must have formed this sort of agency to deal with
super threats.

How very typical.

Priss fumed as the last person entered. What was going on? She knew
enough English to translate some hip phrases for her songs, but this
was entirely different. She was caught unprepared as gravity slowly
reasserted itself on her body. She and Nene stumbled, knocking into
each other and falling down.

"Sorry about that! We only run about two-thirds a gee up here."

"Baka!" Priss said hotly as she stood back up. She wasn't sure if she
was referring to herself, Nene or Major Brown.

Sylia slipped her helmet off after the pressure equalized and took a
moment to explain that they were going to have to un-armor to the rest
of her team. Reluctantly they shed their armor and piled it into four
armored crates that were brought in. They were sealed up and locked by
a SHIELD officer in a duty uniform. The simple, snug and blue body
suit had matching boots and gold eagle insignia emblems on its
shoulders. Iron Man stepped away to talk to a commanding female just
down the hall.

"So now what?" Nene asked, blushing slightly. The inner suits were too
skin-tight and revealing!

Major Brown took his own helmet off, allowing the Knight Sabers to
actually see him for the first time. The clean cut Negro with a square
jaw grinned and replied, "Pardon me for saying this, but you look like
hell. Would you like somewhere to clean up? After that, we'd like to
ask you some questions."

Nene patted her matted and sticky hair. She nodded furiously.

Sylia sighed and nodded her agreement finally. A blond haired man led
them to a small private room. A quick look around showed that it had
four bunks and a very small shower in the corner. Lockers in the wall
held more of the dark blue jumpsuits.

Nene wanted to take the first shower to get her puke out of her hair.
Everyone agreed about that!

"So, what's going on, Sylia? Who are these guys and what do they want
with us?" Linna asked, wishing for a moment that she had a headband to
keep her hair out of her eyes.

Behind her Nene struggled to scrub herself clean in the little water
closet like shower.

"Yeah! What sort of goofy place is this?" Priss demanded.

Sylia pursed her lips. "This is an alternate universe, as closely as
Nene and I can tell. A place where Maxim and her kind live. Or
something very close to it."

"So we get to see more people like Polarion around? And we gave up our
armor? That doesn't make me feel safe!" Linna exclaimed.

"Did you want to argue the point while we were running out of air?"
Sylia inquired, eyebrows arching.

Linna opened her mouth in a silent 'O.' A second later she finally
responded, "I'd forgotten that." She put a big cheesy grin on her face
to hide her nervousness. "Doh."

Priss shrugged and crossed her arms as she leaned up against the wall.
"So now what?"

"We talk to our host and see what can be done to send us home. If it's
possible."

Nene stepped out just in time to hear that. "So... we could be stuck
here?" Her voice quavered and nearly broke.

Sylia nodded her head slowly.

-pagebreak-

Major Brown turned in his seat as the four women were escorted in.
They were still wearing those skintight uniforms of their own odd
design. Were those cyber ports up near the neck? He stood up and
gestured at the open seats around the small table. "Ladies? If you
don't mind."

Iron Man turned and followed them into the room. Hmm, interesting, he
thought to himself. Neural sensors in the entire suit?

"Not at all," Sylia replied nodding her head in polite gratitude. The
Knight Sabers had decided to stay in their inner suits, just in case.
It was just a little cold and inconvenient.

"Coffee? Tea? Please, help yourselves." Brown sat back down and pulled
out a few folders and marking down some information. "If you don't
mind, can I get your names?" A small laptop next to him searched for
information as he glanced over at it.

"Sylia Stingray. This is Priss Asigari, Linna Yamazaki and Nene
Romanova." Giving their names was a calculated risk. But they had so
little to bargain with right now. And if she was right, it wouldn't
matter.

"Where are you from? What were you doing on that space ship? It
doesn't fit any known registration currently being used." He touched
the screen, following some information tags.

Linna and Priss glanced at each other across the table. Sylia finally
spoke up, speaking deliberately. "We believe we are from another
Earth, brought here by accident. We were on that spaceship
confiscating contraband. During that operation, we were attacked and
had to take off to save our lives. Partway during the attack some of
the contraband equipment was used to send us here, to our deaths I
presume."

Major Brown continued writing for a second. "Hmm. Well, there's
nothing intrinsically illegal about your suits and our long range
sensors do agree about the possibility of a dimensional shift. As long
as you don't cause any problems, I'll see about sending you back to
Earth on the next shuttle. That's only a few hours away."

Sylia blinked in surprise. "That easily?"

Iron Man's distorted voice gave him an odd chuckle. "This isn't the
first time that we've had marooned dimensional visitors. We just
barely managed to get the Squadron Supreme home last year. I'll
personally talk to my boss about looking for ways to send you home."

"You going to hang around for the shuttle, Shell Head?"

"If you don't mind. I think I'll stick with the young ladies until I'm
sure they're being treated properly."

Sylia frowned. "And how do you fit in to this?"

"I just happened to be the fastest person to the scene today. I'm
doing my good Samaritan deed for the day," Iron Man replied jauntily.

"You are a civilian?"

"Civilian super-hero, any ways."

"If you don't mind, I've got some work to do," Major Brown said as he stood up.

Nene looked up from where she was translating what was going on for
Priss. "Hey! Can we look around? I've never been in space before!"

Linna groaned loudly, hiding her eyes behind her closed hand
theatrically. Priss glanced over at her theatrics with worry in her
eyes. What sort of trouble was Nene getting in?

"I'm sorry, but I'll have to ask that you stay in this room or the
bunk room that you used to clean up in."

"Rats."

-pagebreak-

The large white shuttle, based on the old US space shuttle but of much
greater girth, floating serenely through the void towards the SHIELD
space station. Sitting in the cockpit, two men of average build looked
at different screens and gauges with cold eyes.

"T-minus five seconds. Five, four, three, two, one, zero. Operation
Chicken Little is a go," the one on the left said to his companion.

"That is confirmed. Jettisoning the cargo and preparing to receive
troops. Hail Hydra!"

"Hail Hydra!"

-pagebreak-

Sylia paused and looked up at the ceiling where a small speaker was
mounted. "That sounds like our shuttle." It had been quiet while they
waited.

Iron Man nodded. "That it was. They'll be an hour or so..." Explosions
suddenly interrupted him. "What the!?" He exclaimed even as he moved
towards the door.

The door opened just as he was about to open it. Two figures in green
and yellow space armor had guns held at the ready. "Die for the glory
Hydra! Hail... Hydra? Iron Man?" The two agents of Hydra looked at
each other for just a second. With a quick shrug they turned back to
the red and gold figure, unloading their energy rifles into him.

The Golden Avenger stood his ground, seemingly unaffected. His
repulsors slammed both of his attackers against the far wall, knocking
them senseless with a loud shriek of ionized air. "You four, stay
here! I have to help defend the station."

Sylia turned and looked at her troops after he left. "As much as I
appreciate that man for his rescue, I think we'd better take some
steps to protect ourselves. Linna, Priss, if you would be so kind as
to take those nice rifles and lead the way towards our suits?"

Priss grinned ferally. "You bet."

Linna nodded grimly in acknowledgment.

As soon as they grabbed the rifles, they headed towards the small room
they'd left their armors in. The door opened easily. Priss pried at
her locker, trying to open it up. "No go! It's locked with some sort
of electronic lock."

"Nene! Do you think you can access it?" Sylia waited for Nene's nod.
"Priss, Linna, watch the door."

Priss happened to glance backwards to see Nene and Sylia meditating,
their hands touching the lock panel. Her eyebrows creased in
confusion. What were they doing? Suddenly the latch opened itself,
followed quickly by the other three crates locks as Nene's gaze
drifted to them.

"Come and get your suits, you two!" Nene called out.

Shortly they were garbed in comforting metal and composites. Priss
carefully watched Sylia and Nene, but they didn't seem to be any
different.

Suddenly, the door was blown off of its hinges as a squad of Hydra
soldiers charged in; expecting to find SHIELD armored squad powering
up their armors.

They were unprepared for the women wearing unusual and unorthodox
looking colorful armor. Hesitating just a second, their shots couldn't
quite track the suddenly moving Knight Sabers.

Priss yelled out in Japanese, "Oh, no you don't!" Three spikes cut
through the light armor of the green and yellow troops.

"Take it in hand to hand! Use your suits strength to knock them out."
Sylia followed her own advice, corkscrewing in from the air to slam
into a cluster of them.

It took conscious effort to not use their close-in weapons. But even
so, the exoskeleton-enhanced muscles defeated the Hydra agents in a
short matter of time.

"I'm getting a power buildup one hundred meters away! I... I think
that they may have taken control of the reactor here!" Nene said.

"What sort of reactor?" Sylia asked as she ran down a hallway. She was
quickly followed by the rest of the team.

"Um, I'm not sure. It's pretty huge though. Wait... I'm getting
something on a radio channel. Anti-matter breach imminent?" the red
Knight Saber blurted, the last word was almost screeched out.

"That sounds bad," Priss said sagely.

They clanked around a corner at high speed. In front of them was a
closed door, armored and imposing. "Nene, crack it. Priss, you're
lead. Linna and I'll flank you."

"Got it! Right behind you guys!" Nene yelled out from the access
panel, cables snaking back into her armor after they disconnected.

The door opened suddenly. In front of them lay a circular room, four
stories high. A reactor of some sort took up most of the room. A
firefight in between SHIELD and Hydra agents was in full progress.
Some Hydra agents seemed to have taken over a control booth.

Crackling energies encompassed Iron Man, immobilizing him next to the
control room windows. Taking in the view almost instantly, Sylia
barked out orders. "Priss, take that control booth. Keep the damage
down. Nene, you need to be right behind her. Linna and I will run
interference. Knight Sabers, Go!"

Hydra and SHIELD agents watched the newcomers warily. Priss took five
running steps and them leaped at the wall of the massive room. She
leaped again, thrusting rocketing her ever further up. Sylia and Linna
unleashed a fusillade of energy at the Hydra agents that were lining
up shots at the dark blue Knight Saber.

Battered wings swung out on the white Knight Sabers back. She took to
the air, still blasting away. She suddenly jinked sideways, passing
right behind Priss as she barreled through the window. A gleaming
sword snapped out of its sheath and locked in position. She then
slashed at one of the floating balls that were trapping Iron Man,
cleaving it in half and freeing him.

Nene yelled as she followed Priss through the window, clubbing an
unfortunate Hydra agent when he tried to intercept her. Hefting him
with her enhanced strength, she tossed him into another two
terrorists. Seeing that no one was going to attack her while Priss was
there, she started plugging her suit into the system.

Freed of the force field trap, Iron Man unleashed his considerable
firepower into the Hydra agents, knocking them back and out. He
drifted backwards into the control room, the white Knight Saber right
behind him.

"Nene, how's it going?" Sylia asked.

"I should have it cracked in no time at all. But the coolant system
for the containment grid is leaking. It needs to be fixed." The screen
in front of her had information scrolling rapidly across it.

"Tell me where, and I'll see what I can do to fix it!" Iron Man's
synthesized voiced boomed out in Japanese. He took to the air, headed
for the relevant machinery.

"Linking... downloading specifications to him. Almost through the
viral mush they downloaded into the computers system. It's really
slowed the computers down frightfully." The screen in front of Nene
changed, patterns and diagrams appearing.

Priss walked over to see what was going on. Behind her, a lone Hydra
agent stood up and leaped at her. Seemingly nonchalantly, she dipped
to the side even as she backhanded him with her gauntlet.

"And we got it! Systems are nominal." Nene sagged in relief. That had
been a bit close. Even now, the containment grid was slightly
unstable.

A SHIELD agent finally made it to the control room. In English, he
shouted, "What's going on in here?"

She responded, "We've taken control here and stabilized the reactor."
Sylia flipped up her visor.

"That's one good piece of news, any ways." He tacitly ignored the
armors that were supposed to be locked up. He tapped some buttons on
his communicator that was over his left ear. "We're starting to take
control elsewhere. I guess all that's left is to mop up and then get
you ladies down to Earth."

Sylia nodded, her expression thoughtful.

-pagebreak-

The wind ruffled Tony Stark's hair as the SHIELD VTOL jet lifted off
into the blue sky. He waved as he walked over to the four armored
women that had been dropped like a hot potato by the government. "Over
here!"

"Mr. Stark?" Sylia asked, nonplussed at the handsome thirty-ish
looking man in front of her.

"That's me. I had a chance to talk to Iron Man about your situation."
He gestured towards the large house behind him. "I've got more than
enough room to house you while we search for a way to send you home."

"That is very generous," Sylia noted.

"Money has to be good for something other than sitting in banks!" Tony
smiled amiably, turned and walked towards the main doors.

Sylia followed, just a step ahead of the rest of the Knight Sabers.
Aching joints recalled the fact that she'd been in her armor for
almost ten hours.

"It's a smart house, so all you have to do is ask and it'll direct you
where you need to go. Jocasta, I'd like you to meet the Knight
Sabers."

A large hologram appeared in the air. A digital Egyptian headdress
accentuated the strangely stylized female face. "It's good to meet
you. Tony, you have a call waiting on you. It's from Stark/Fujikawa's
vice president in charge of development."

"Thanks," Tony replied, walking off into the house. His shoulders had
suddenly tensed up.

Sylia squinted for just a second at the hologram. "Hello, Jocasta. My
name is Sylia. This is Priss, Linna and Nene."

The other Knight Sabers responded verbally when Sylia pointed them
out. Nene introduced herself cheerfully, "Hi!"

"We'd like to get out of these suits and get into something more
comfortable." Sylia removed her helmet.

"Please follow the arrows," Jocasta commanded gently.

Holographic arrows appeared, leading them to an unobtrusive elevator.
In moments they were led to an automated laboratory/workshop.

"Hmm. Interesting." Sylia looked over the consoles. "Would it be
possible to be able to use this facility to repair our suits?"

The holographic head didn't answer for a second. "Mr. Stark has now
authorized its use. I would suggest resting first. Would you like the
use of the Jacuzzi?"

"Jacuzzi?" Priss asked. It had been the only word that she had understood.

Sylia glanced over at the singer. "Jocasta? Priss doesn't understand
English very well. Can you communicate in Japanese?"

"Certainly," the artificial intelligence replied in Japanese.

"And yes, I think the Jacuzzi sounds delightful," Sylia replied.

The other Knight Sabers agreed vocally and loudly.

-pagebreak-

"Vandalism?" Tony asked, steepling his finger in front of him. On the
screen inserted in his desk an oriental figure was shown.

"Yes. Secured areas and secret developments have both been broken
into, seemingly with ease. No trace of the perpetrator is ever left.
It's uncanny," the man said curtly. "The board of directors is getting
desperate."

"And you want me to send in Iron Man?" he surmised vocally.

"Do not forget, Anthony Stark, that much of your wealth is still tied
with Stark/Fujikawa. It is in your own best interests."

"Yes. So I see." Tony stared off into the bay through the windows for
a moment. "What high profile projects are you developing?"

"That is privileged information, Mr. Stark. I would be stepping on
many toes to tell you."

"Mr. Watanabe, I am going to need that information. I've been the
victim of corporate espionage before, so I may be able to determine
who and what they are after. I already have several suspects in mind."

Daniel Watanabe frowned. "Very well. Stark/Fujikawa is licensed to
continue development on high security power plant. Very recently, the
team assigned to it made a breakthrough, resulting in magnitudes of
savings in manufacturing."

"Power plant?" A clammy hand gripped his heart.

"Yes. A beta particle generator that you had purchased the rights to
when you were in charge. An amazing piece of..."

"The Ghost!" 

"Excuse me? He is nothing but a myth!" Daniel showed his surprise.

"Much more than that. He's tried to kill me personally and he's
successfully tangled with Iron Man." Tony came to an abrupt decision.
"I'll send you Iron Man. He should be able to flush him out if he's
still there."

"Thank you, Stark-san. I will inform the board of directors." The
screen went blank.

Tony keyed his main office on the screen. "Pepper? I'm going to be
unavailable for the rest of the day. If you need me, contact me on my
cellular phone."

"Got it. Are you all right, Tony? You look like you've seen a ghost,"
the red haired office manager said.

"Not yet. But I'm sure I will before the end of the day."

-pagebreak-

Sylia examined a green shoulder guard by eye before setting it
underneath an x-ray scanner. All of the suits of armor were in some
state of disassembly on different tables. Small robotic arms were busy
disassembling a red and black helmet behind her and laying it out
carefully.

A thunking metallic sound at the door drew her attention. The door
slid open quietly, letting a bedraggled armored figure drearily stomp
in.

Iron Man blinked in surprise at the woman busy in his lab. Oh, yeah.
He had agreed to let them use the lab. But he really needed to fix his
suit after his latest encounter with the Ghost. "Good morning," he
said, taking in the lateness of the time. When was the last time he'd
slept?

"Good morning, Iron Man. You look like you've seen some action," Sylia
noted curiously.

"Yes. I had an altercation with a corporate spy. He's upgraded his
weapons since the last time I'd fought him. I'd better go talk to my
boss about it. They have a history." Iron Man turned around and walked
out. Even through the armor's synthesizer, you could hear how tired he
was.

Sylia shrugged and went back to work. Minutes later, a slightly
rumpled Tony Stark wandered in, followed by a compact mass of red and
gold metal. "Hmm? Oh, hello. I hope you don't mind, but I've got some
repairs to affect on Iron Man's armor."

"Not at all. You are being kind by letting me borrow your facility."
The leader of the Knight Sabers gave him a speculative look.
Interesting.

The floating bundle of red and gold unfolded into an open, hollow
shell, vaguely man shaped. Tools and diagnostic sensors units unfolded
from the ceiling. Different modules were removed and replaced or
repaired.

Sylia studiously ignored him for several hours. Out of the blue, she
realized that she hadn't heard anything from him for a while. She
finished what she was doing and looked over at him. A small smile
graced her lips. "What an interesting puzzle you are, Mr. Stark,"
Sylia muttered to herself. She stretched and stood, then draped a lab
coat across his sleeping form. Casual steps led her to the elevator
and back up into the house proper.

Quiet voices speaking in Japanese led her to the pool, where the rest
of the Knight Sabers were relaxing under the sun. Ugly bruises adorned
Priss and Lina, marring the otherwise peaceful scene. Quiet snores
seemed to be emanating from the smallest Knight Saber.

"I don't know. This place doesn't look that different," Priss said.
"I'm thinking about going into town. Want to come along?"

"Sure, I guess. I did some checking on their 'net. This place is
really different. Their space program is decades ahead of where it's
supposed to be, but there's almost no commerce in space. It's really
odd." Lina shifted slightly. "Can you believe they have some guy
claiming to be a Norse god on their super team?"

"Really? Did he look godly?" Priss asked teasingly.

Lina sighed dreamily. "Oh, yes. I'm not usually into Aryan types, but
he's so handsome. You should see the shoulders on him."

"I thought you'd be interested in our host? He's loaded, handsome and
he's got a super-hero on the payroll!"

Sylia cleared her throat. "Good afternoon, girls. How are you recuperating?"

The two women turned towards her. "Pretty good. It's nice to relax."
Priss slid her glassed back on.

"Yeah. Soaking really helped with the aches too. Except for my leg,"
Lina said, scowling at the offending appendage.

"Is it hurting?"

"No, Sylia. Not really. It just aches right above it. Even if it is
really high quality." Lina rubbed her left leg's thigh. "It's hard to
imagine that just a few days ago that it was shattered with no hope of
fully healing."

Sylia looked her with a calculating, piercing gaze. "Nothing else?
No... regret?"

"About getting it replaced? Some. Not much. I was not going to be a
cripple for the rest of my life."

Silence stretched uncomfortably. Lina had a very stubborn look on her face.

"Well, don't over do the sunbathing. As a matter of fact, I think I'd
better rescue Nene before she burns herself." Sylia walked over to the
object of her words and shook her shoulder. "Nene. Wake up, Nene."

"Um? What's going on?"

"It's lunchtime and I think you should get out of the sun. You look
pretty well rested. I'd like you to help me repair our suits this
afternoon." Sylia looked Nene over. Surprisingly, she didn't look like
she'd burned herself in the sun.

"I guess so. Let me go change." 

Minutes later she appeared, wearing a similar casual slacks and blouse
type combo that Sylia was already wearing. The four of them ate their
meal quietly, not feeling the need to fill in the silence with
talking.

Later, as they entered the laboratory, Sylia turned to Nene. "Nene?
I'd like you to help repair the batteries in the suits. Lina's
hardsuit needs some of its muscle fibers replaced too. I'm not sure
how we'll manage that."

"Anything else?"

"I checked their level of IC's. It's not quite up to specs for what we
need, so we'll have to bypass damaged circuits or replace with what we
can. I was reading some scientific journals and they have some
astounding advances in energy storage systems. And I want to see what
I can do about true flight capabilities for the suits."

"Okay! I'll check around online to see what I can find, too." Nene
blinked in surprise as she spotted the sleeping figure slumped over
the table. "Um, Sylia? What's he doing here?"

"He's sleeping. He worked himself until he collapsed. And it is his
home after all."

"Hmm."

-pagebreak-

Tony yawned and stretched. He pushed the tray of food away from him,
back into the dumb waiter. He turned back to the screen of
information. The suit tested out to 99.99%. Not quite airline
standards, but they didn't work with as much experimental technology
either.

He turned to check on the other users of the lab, seeing them
reassemble the different suits and going over the neural interface
suits closely. "You seem to have made some good progress today," he
said admiringly.

"I have to say that it had a lot to do with the fine facilities here."
Sylia gestured at her own suit. "With some of the technology here, I
was actually able to make some very useful changes too."

"Oh?"

"Mostly in power systems and thrusters. I really couldn't change much
more." Sylia neglected to tell him that she'd taken the time to commit
to memory a vast scientific storehouse of exoteric technology that
just didn't exist on her world.

"Interesting. As a point of good news, HOMER has come across a few
lines of inquiry into the problem of getting you ladies home." He
stretched suddenly, his back giving off pops and snaps of complaints.
"But that's for later. All work and no play makes Tony a dull boy. If
you don't mind, It would be my pleasure to show off the night life of
Seattle."

"I would be delighted. I don't get the chance to visit the States very
often. And this would be the first time that I've been to this
interesting city." Sylia turned to look at the handsome businessman.

"And you, Miss Romanova?" he inquired.

"I, uh, just don't feel much up to it." It just didn't feel right
going out without Mackie. HOMER?

-pagebreak-

"So the other two girls had already left to get some shopping done?"
Tony asked, looking much refreshed and cleaned up. He was wearing a
very nice business suit, dark gray with a black shirt.

"Yes. I believe Priss dragged Linna off, citing boredom. Linna was
only too happy to go shopping with the money you provided." Sylia was
wearing a daring evening dress, a pale light blue in color.

"Do you have any preference in the evenings entertainment?"

"An American Musical of some sort would be wonderful."

"Perhaps Cats?"

"I would be delighted." Sylia smiled politely for his pleasure. It had
been such a long time since she'd been on a date.

"Bye-bye you two!" Nene called out, acting extra cute to annoy Sylia a
tiny bit. "Tee hee hee!" The moment they were out of sight, she became
far more serious. It had been a long time since she'd done a serious
hacking job. She went to the computer terminal in her guest room and
started to surf the quaintly termed 'Internet.' "So Jocasta, you are
an artificial intelligence?"

"Yes, Nene." The intelligence watched the girl closely. She was quite
a bit different from most of the people that she'd ever had to deal
with. "I was created by a robot known as Ultron. He used the brain
patterns of the heroine known as the Wasp as the basis for my
engrams."

"How does that work?"

"The pattern engrams give the basis for the beginning of my emotional
makeup. Without them, I would have had to take years to develop a
morality and ethical basis for my actions. It also plays a part in
some of my likes and dislikes."

"So you're a copy of this Wasp." Nene had this picture of a half
human, half wasp like creature wearing a super hero costume in her
mind.

"Not at all. I share many similarities with the Wasp, but I am my own
individual." Jocasta image a picture of the petite Avenger in one of
her myriad of costumes that she'd worn during her career as one of the
most preeminent heroes of the world. Other than the insect-like wings
that were on her back, she appeared startling normal.

Nene giggled suddenly. "Not how I imagined how she'd look. I can be so
silly sometimes." Mentally, she traced the many pathways and data
conduits that existed within the house, finally finding a reference to
HOMER. Strange, HOMER was another AI, but primitive in comparison to
Jocasta.

The female AI paused a moment. She had almost felt something within
the data network of the house, but could find no trace of it now. "She
is one of the founding Avengers. Quite resourceful, given her limited
powers of shrinking and flight."

Nene continued to worm her way within the computers of the Stark
residence even as she kept talking to its security program,
distracting it with her chatter.

-pagebreak-

"Isn't this much better?" Priss asked, stepping into a local bar club
that advertised in Japanese. They had ended up in the 'Little Tokyo'
section of Chinatown.

"It is nice to hear people speaking Japanese again. Although you could
be a bit nicer to our host. After all, he did pay for all of our nice
clothes. And your rental motorcycle." Linna looked around the bar,
seeing nothing outwardly unusual.

Priss slid into a booth. "Yeah, yeah. I hear you. I just had to get
out of that creepy house. Not even Sylia has a boomer watching you all
the time!"

"It's called a smart house. And the really rich people of MegaTokyo
had 'em too." In her mind, Linna was cataloging the cost of the house
in New Yen.

"Yay. He's your ideal mate."

"Hey! What are you insinuating?"

"What? Tell me truthfully that you weren't thinking of dating him!"
Priss had a smug expression on her face.

"I don't even know if he dating anyone!" Linna protested weakly.

"So you were thinking about it!" she crowed.

"The thought had passed my mind once or twice. I mean, he is handsome,
in that non-Japanese American sort of way."

A waitress walked up to take their orders. "I'll have a shot of gin
while the compulsive-dater here will have an Eibesu beer."

"I am not a compulsive dater!" Linna whined.

They were suddenly distracted by three men walking into the bar. They
just about screamed Yakuza, from the tailored suits and the dark
sunglasses worn in the dark bar.

"There he is."

"Logan-san, you are not wanted nor needed here." Chairs made a
scuffling sound from across the room. The silence was only broken by
the sound of the juke box that kept playing. The lead man had his arms
crossed, waiting expectantly.

The man in the shadowed booth took a calculated swig of his bear. "And
what if I don't agree with you?"

"We are prepared to persuade you to. Do not think that the memory of
your wife will make a difference here."

Priss got her first view of the bestial man as his head came out of
the shadows. His brutish features were in a feral snarl, his canines
giving him a wolfish look. "Bub, that was the wrong thing to say!" he
roared out, slamming the table away as he surged to his feet.

The lead Yakuza seemed unperturbed as he pulled out a tazer-like
device that he shot at 'Logan.' A filament web shot out and ensnared
him, electricity playing along it. The short, feral man collapsed into
a twitching mass of bunched muscles.

"There going to kill him," Priss muttered to herself. Without any
warning, she threw the napkin holder at the hand holding the tazer,
causing him to drop it. She was only a step or two behind it, body
tackling a second man to the ground.

"Priss! Are you nuts?" her companion asked even as dipped underneath a
knife thrust. She spun, kicking him on the temple, felling him in one
shot.

" 'preciate the help, girls. But I'm fine by myself!" the one called
Logan called out as he put his fist deeply into the stomach of the
last one. The duo hadn't even seen him recover or move.

"I think we need to leave!" Priss sang out, happy as a kitten with a
ball of yarn. She pulled out a large revolver, smirking happily.

"Sure-? Where did you get that?" the dancer asked.

"Money talks-" Priss started to explain.

"Down!" the short, bestial man yelled out even as he tackled them to the ground.

The few remaining patrons followed the order prudently. With a roaring
stutter, gunfire blazed in through the windows, racking back and
forth. Logan was already crawling along the ground towards the back
door. He shifted to a crouch and then slammed through the door into
the two gunmen that were standing too close to the door. He seemed
unconcerned by the two other men that were leveling Uzi's at him.

The first gunman was slammed against a wall as a loud retort cracked
out. His companion looked up just in time to see Priss get control of
her gun, swinging it back around. He dived behind an alleyway, chips
of stone spraying behind him.

"I like it!" Priss shouted gleefully.

"You are an ape woman, you know that?" Linna retorted.

"Less lip, more running!" Logan shouted. He couldn't let them get
hurt. How could they know he was in relatively little danger back
there?

-pagebreak-

"Oooh. Neato! File that away in memory core file 2-A32," Nene said
happily to herself.

"What was that, Nene?" Jocasta asked serenely.

"Nothing. Just tooling around a bit." Deep within the web of the
house, she noticed a sensor (43Alpha, Sector UW 15) giving a
diagnostic failure. 'Say, what's that?' she mentally transmitted to
the AI.

'Nothing too serious. I'll focus a camera-???' Jocasta's voice cut off
in surprise. 'Nene, I want you to run from the house, right now!'

'Why? He doesn't look dangerous,' Nene replied. He looked muscular,
but squat. His chest and head were covered in dark red armor. His
helmet looked very comical, with his round, dome-like helmet. Without
thinking she unplugged from the computer she was attached to. In
moments, she was running down the hall and into the sub-basement
laboratories.

Jocasta had switched her attention to slowing the advance of the
rampaging super villain. She was rapidly calculating the different
suppression weapons that she had available. The odds of any of these
weapons stopping him were small and diminishing.

With practiced motions, Nene slipped into her crimson and black
hardsuit. She blasted off with her new thrusters, rocketing down the
halls and out the front door of the posh home. She spun once in the
air and then landed at the edge of the water.

The water in front of her was boiling and frothing. Suddenly the huge
figure of the Juggernaut broke the surface, casually ripping
electrified cables off of himself while he walked forward.

"Nene! Get out of there!" Jocasta shouted, a holographic
representation of herself appearing beside the lone Knight Saber.

"I can do this! I'm not a wimp!" Nene shouted, charging the huge figure.

Even though his build was squat and muscular, the Juggernaut towered
above the high-heeled armored heroine. "Ha! Don't make me laugh!
You're no Iron Man! And even Iron Man can't stop... The Juggernaut!"

Nene didn't reply, letting loose with a powerful pulse from her plasma
projectors. She instinctively aimed for the unarmored shoulders of the
large target. She was shocked to see it just bounce, as harmless as
rain striking concrete. "What?"

"That pea-shooter ain't gonna help you, girly." Marko Cain swung a
mighty ham-handed fist at the lithe figure that ducked adroitly.

"What the-? Does he have some kind of force field?" the one time
red-head asked rhetorically. She was startled when the gigantic man
responded.

"Yup. I can't be hurt. I can't be stopped. You're in trouble." He
swung again, smashing a ten foot crater into the ground with the
single blow.

New micro-jets whined to life, lifting her into the air to hover fifty
feet away from him. Special sensor panels sprang open. On her HUD,
strange spectral data flooded into her comp. "I... don't get it.
Where's the power source? Heck, where's the electronics?"

With a low laugh, the huge figure ripped up a huge chunk of concrete
and steel from the dock and threw it at the startled figure with his
prodigious might. It must have weighed hundreds of tons!

"No!"

-pagebreak-

Sylia Stingray was remarkably well educated about American society and
culture, Tony Stark thought to himself. He was finding it an enjoyable
evening at the play and then later at a restaurant of her choosing. He
would have been bemused to discover that Sylia was thinking almost the
same thing in response.

Their quiet evening was suddenly shattered by the urgent beeping of a
pager. He palmed it while flashing her an apologetic expression. He
stood up suddenly. "I'm sorry. I have an intruder alert back at the
house. It's something where I had better send in Iron Man and had
better keep in close contact with him."

Sylia's eyes narrowed. "At the house? Is anyone hurt?"

Tony looked uncertain for a second. "The shorter girl, Nene, may be
hurt. Jocasta wasn't sure."

"Then I'm coming with you." Sylia stood up while grabbing her new purse.

"Ah..." He seemed to be uncertain.

"I'm sure you can find somewhere to slip away to later," the Knight
Saber's leader said as she walked quickly towards the exit.

Tony narrowed his own eyes in speculation. In moments, they were
outside in his custom roadster, zooming through the air.

The silence stretched between them. Finally, Tony Stark spoke, "You know."

"I conjectured." Sylia nodded her head to emphasize the point.

He smiled wanly. "I guess that's what I get for letting you stay at my place."

His guest smiled back in reply. "Yes."

Tony shook his head, getting his thoughts in focus. "I hope Nene isn't
hurt. I may have to call in a specialist to deal with the Juggernaut.
I understand he's vulnerable to telepathy and magic. Things I don't
deal with regularly."

"What other weakness does he have?" the dimensionally displaced
refugee asked. Magic? Why the odd emphasis?

"Nothing."

He couldn't be serious, could he? Sylia thought incredulously. Yet, he
seemed to be. Deadly serious, in fact.

-pagebreak-

"Ow. Owie." Artificial muscles strained futilely to free her. Panic
gripped her with a surge of adrenaline.

The Juggernaut was stomping towards the house, ignoring the lasers
that tried to burn him. The large mound of concrete that had crushed
the unknown (to him) superhero suddenly exploded. The battered figure
stood woozily where the mass had landed.

"Hey! You might actually some sort of challenge!" the giant warrior
crowed, even as he charged her.

The lone Knight Saber barely had time to look up at the onrushing
villain before she was blasted through the garage via an overgrown
body tackle. She skidded across the ground, leaving bits and pieces of
smashed armor behind her. "I'm still alive?" she muttered to herself.

"You're a cutey under all that armor, you know that?" the unstoppable
scion of Cyttorak said with a chuckle. "Not that your looks will save
you!" With startling swiftness, he grabbed her shoulders with both
ham-hands, gripping painfully tight.

Metal bent and screeched, even as her bones tried to shift. The
shattered remains of her helmet fell off. Nene couldn't stop herself,
tears streaming down her face. She was going to die and nobody was
going to be here to save her.

Save yourself, Nene. Don't let yourself die! Fight! FIGHT! a small
voice yelled at the top of its mental voice. Fight for Mackie!

Nene heard the fading super-heroine's voice, dimly. "Let... me... go!"
she suddenly yelled out. With a strength that surprised herself and
her opponent, she broke free.

"What the-? How'd you get so strong? Heck! How'd you survive my
strength?" Cain Marko exclaimed in surprise.

"I've got... real super powers." The Knight Saber's features hardened,
eyes narrowing. "You tried to kill me. You didn't have any idea that I
could survive that!"

"Yeah? So? I'm still going to kill you! Nothing is going to stop me,
either." The Juggernaut's mouth twisted into a nasty grin. He quelled
the little voice in the back of his mind, his oft ignored conscious.
This was going to be fun. He charged forward suddenly in a
line-backer's charge.

Instinctively, Nene jumped into the air as she would have in her
armor. Her powerful leg muscles flung her far further into the air
than her old suit's jet assisted leap would have.

"I hate flyers," Cain muttered to himself. He was pretty lucky, he
thought to himself. She seemed pretty clueless. Novices are fun to toy
with. Heck, he might not even kill her.

Just put her in the hospital.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size, Juggernaut?" a
mechanically distorted voice quipped as it came into range. "Oh, wait,
the Blob isn't around much, is he?"

"Iron Man?" Cain's smile just got wider. "Just the man I'm here to
squish. You and your boss!"

Let's start a round of pulse bolts, Tony thought to himself. A
trip-hammer like wave of energy with the power of a lightning bolt
slammed into his foe.

The Juggernaut just laughed at that. It proved as ineffective as anything else.

A sudden explosion encompassed that back of the giant's head, sending
him staggering forward for just a second.

"Did that work?" the silvery Knight Saber asked as she landed about
forty feet behind the Juggernaut. Her knuckle bombers were smoking.

"I doubt it. He's pretty much impervious to anything we can do to hurt
him." Iron Man jetted around the figure, peppering him with repulsor
fire.

"Not the most maneuverable thing, is he?" she queried, even as her new
thrusters lifted her into the air.

Nene cracked a smile. Let's see what her new muscles were really
worth. She waited until the huge man's back was to her before picking
him up from behind his knees. "Hyaa!" she yelled out as she threw him
into the air. He made a high arc up and out into the water. "Yay! That
worked!"

"For a little while. He'll be back," Iron Man said as he hovered over.

"Oh, right! I can fly!" Nene exclaimed, almost as if she were speaking
to herself.

Sylia goggled in surprise as Nene lifted off of the ground. She seemed
to float in defiance of the laws of gravity. "Interesting little trick
there. Did you really have to trash your armor?"

"Oh! No!" Nene exclaimed comically.

"Jocasta? Can you send a drone out with an anti-gravity module from my
old modular armor?" Tony asked over the radio link.

"Of course, Iron Man."

"How can Maxim deal with seeing through things?" Nene complained as
she stared at the bay where she had thrown the unstoppable menace.

"Maxim?" Iron Man asked.

The youngest Knight Saber turned to the armored warrior. "You're Tony Stark!"

With a deep resigned sigh, he asked, "How did you come to that conclusion?"

"Your, um, eyes are the same. Identical."

Sylia started laughing quietly. From the damaged home, a robotic drone
floated up with a small metallic package.

"I guess I'll have to change my next armor so that you can't see my
eyes," Tony said. "First Sylia, then you. I expect that your two
friends will show up and figure it out next."

A wake appeared about six hundred feet out in the bay, moving quickly.
In just a few moments, the Juggernaut exploded back out of the water
to land on the shore. "I'm going to rip your arms off and feed them to
you!" he shouted. "I was going to be a nice guy, but no more!"

A roaring sound suddenly interrupted him as a large racing boat
slammed into the back on him, sending him staggering. The boat skidded
along the ground, even as a figure leaped off right at the edge of the
water.

"Alright, someone's gonna die now! I'm through playing around!" The
Juggernaut yelled. He was getting truly angry for the first time.

"Hey! It's the Juggy-wimp!" Logan quipped. He smiled nastily, even as
his claws sh-clickt into place.

"Wolverine? DIE you little runt!" the titanic man yelled, lashing out
with a huge overhand blow. Wolverine let it miss him by just a few
inches.

He had underestimated how hard the blow was, as it impacted into the
ground right next to him with the force of several tons of TNT. Debris
acted as shrapnel, turning the mutant into a twisted ruin. Pained
moans were one of the only signs that he hadn't been killed outright

"Ha! I'll have to remember that trick!" Juggernaut crowed.

Click. Iron Man appeared, literally from thin air, behind the
unstoppable avatar of destruction. "Up you go. If you don't have
anything to push against, you can't move."

"Huh?" Juggernaut managed to say before he started to float off into the air.

With a cybernetic command, Iron Man stopped his ascent at about fifty feet.

"Hey! This ain't fair! Fight me!"

"Fair?" Iron Man asked. "You've got to be kidding! You're a psychopath!"

"A simple and elegant solution. Too bad it was not quick enough for-"

The armored avenger interrupted her as carefully as possible. "Are you
going to live?" Iron Man asked the severely injured man on the ground.

"Yeah. Shit that hurts," Logan growled. He managed to stagger to his
feet. "Healing factor is going to be working overtime to fix that.
Ugh." He staggered but managed to stay on his feet.

"How?" Sylia asked, startled far more than she would admit.

"He has a beneficial mutation of greatly accelerated healing. You're
Logan, right? Or better known as the Wolverine of the X-Men," Iron Man
asked.

"Right in one, Stark."

Tony gnashed his teeth in frustration. What was it with everybody and
figuring out his secret today? "He also has incredibly heightened
senses."

Nene floated over. "So you could see his eyes that well too?"

"Nope. Smelled him. Everybody's scents unique."

THOOM. "Ha! My forcefield pushed that right anti-grav gizmo right off
my back!" the Juggernaut crowed as he got back to his feet. "Hey,
runt, ready to get pounded some more?"  The gigantic man suddenly
disappeared behind a curtain of explosions and energy blasts.

The blue armored figure and green armored figure stopped firing from
the entrance to the house.

Priss suddenly rocketed into the air, snapping out of spin at the last
moment. "Yee-ha! This is amazing, Sylia!" she shouted out in her
native tongue.

"Priss! Watch out, you're weapons can't hurt him!" Sylia screamed out
as Priss swooped near the crater she and Linna had just created with
their particle blasters.

>From the smoke, one giant, ham-fisted appendage reached out and caught
the singer by her helmeted head as she was skimming by.

"Hey, heroes! Better think fast!" the behemoth snarled as he started
to exert his strength. The helmet started to crumple in his grip, but
Priss had been in this situation before. With an explosive snap, she
released herself from the helmet. "Hey, pretty good reflexes there,
toots!"

Priss swore at him in Japanese and made a rude, one-fingered gesture
as she flipped away.

"So, Iron Man, are these your 'Stark's Angels'?" Wolverine quipped as
he charged in. He knew his claws weren't going to do a bit of damage
to him. "And you don't happen to have a telepath on call, do you?"

"Stark's Angels?" Sylia asked even as she started to move around to
distract the Juggernaut with blaster-fire.

"Television humor. No, I do not happen to have a telepath on call. But
removing his helmet is not a bad idea, on general principle." Full
power, he mentally directed his armor. Energy sparked across the armor
even as he zoomed into the melee between Juggernaut and Wolverine.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, you tin-plated idiot? You
can't try to out-muscle him!" Wolverine shouted.

'KATHOOOOOM!' went the mighty blow off of the titanic figure's chin,
actually moving him back a bit while the giant involuntarily winced.

"Hey! I almost felt that-" Juggernaut was interrupted by the
screeching sound of metal as his helmet was removed by the
spark-emitting Iron Man. His face looked remarkably normal, if a bit
brutish. "Son-of-a-bitch!" In a panic, he hit the armored figure with
a powerful punch, smashing him right through the house.

"Iron Man!" chorused everyone else.

"Ha! That'll show you to get in my way!" their enemy called out. His
smile vanished a moment later. "Damn."

Iron Man flew back into the area, looking battered and damaged.
"Ouch," he deadpanned.

Sylia blinked in surprise. That armor was much tougher than she would
have thought. "Impressive." She turned back and blasted at the
Juggernaut again.

"You guys can't do anything to me! Why don't you just lay down and
die?" the red-headed titan of destruction yelled. He charged Iron Man
again. If he fell, none of these other's could do anything to stop
him.

Stark winced under his helmet. This was going to give him a headache.
"Activate Omega-Psion. Full Power!" He hated testing prototype
hardware in the field.

Marko Cain just snarled in glee. He was mere feet from Iron Man when a
spark of pinkish energy arced from the helmet in front of him to his
own head. Blinding pain screamed through his head. "Telepathic attack?
You're not a telepath!"

He staggered one more step, before finally succumbing to the psychic
attack. With a groan, he collapsed on top of the nearly comatose Iron
Man.

"Iron Man? Are you alright?" Nene asked. She lifted the prone villain
off of the red and gold armored figure.

"Not... really. But... I'll live."

-pagebreak-

Tony Stark sipped at his bottled water as he watched the young woman
lounging around the living room, watching what they considered to be
classic television. He headed down to his laboratory to check on the
progress of its repairs on the various armors (and replacement helmet
for Priss.) His head still throbbed from his self-induced headache
from the Omega-Psion unit from just a few hours ago.

"H.O.M.E.R.?"

"Yes, Tony?" the artificial intelligence asked seemingly from the air
around him.

"What's the status on the construction of a Time Platform?" Tony sat
down on a stool in front of a mass of metal that was growing as
robotic arms assembled the items from crates.

"It should be finished shortly. Tuning it to the appropriate
dimensional frequency should be a mere matter of calibration and
calculation."

"Thanks, H.O.M.E.R." Tony spun around to a computer console, bring up
several screens as he started to plug in theorems and calculations for
the computers to number-crunch. If he had to say so himself, he was
getting pretty good at helping stranded people to get back to their
home dimension.

"Tony?" Sylia Stingray asked. "You slipped away from the party." She
had a fluffy bathrobe on over her innersuit. She nodded as she saw
that her armors were being finished up.

"Sorry, I'm not really feeling up to celebrating much. It should only
be another ten or fifteen minutes before we're ready to try sending
you home, actually." Tony waved at the nearly completed Time Platform.

"That is good news." Sylia waved to him as she headed upstairs.

Tony suddenly looked around, eyes narrowed in thought. The clatter of
robotic waldos and machines humming filled the room.

-pagebreak-

"And this is the device that is going to be sending our intrepid
adventurers home." Tony directed their attention with one hand. He was
once again wearing his armor. Just in case.

"What is it?" Nene asked even while Priss was asking Linna for a translation.

"This is a time platform that I've modified for trans-dimensional
variance. A colleague of mine deciphered it and with a bit of
tinkering I'm sure it can get you home." He was wearing all but his
helmet at this point.

"I heard you were an egg-head on Reed Richard's level, Stark, but I'd
never heard that you were working on a time machine too." Logan pulled
a long drag on his cigar, then set his teeth around the mangled end of
it.

"I've built a few time machines before."

Sylia blinked at that. "Time travel must be possible, but I had no
idea that it was feasible with even this sort of technology."

"Actually, your own technology level is not that far from being able
to build a time machine. It might be incredibly expensive, but it is
doable." Tony nodded to Nene. "I was talking to Nene about this
Polarion fellow and I think that he may have been building a time
machine as a last trump card, in case the militaries on your world
were in a position to defeat him."

"That's right! Maxim told me that he's tried to rewrite history at
least once." Nene, out of all of the Knight Sabers, looked oddly out
of place. After her hardsuit had been destroyed, Tony had outfitted
her in a bodysuit. It was snug, but not as normally tight as the
sensor-suit she normally wore. She had put her foot down on the type
of skin-tight leotards that many superheroes wore in this age.

Logan suddenly sniffed. "There's someone else here." With that, he
leaped forward and snapped out his claws with a swipe.

"Gucrk!" screamed the white figure as it clutched a wounded arm to his
chest. "Too late! I will finally have my revenge of corporate
America!"

The simple seeming time platform suddenly whined to life, electricity
arcing out an around it. With a massive 'WHUMMMP' of imploding vacuum,
Iron Man and the Knight Sabers ceased to exist in that universe.

-pagebreak-

Acrid smoke filled the enclosed area. Iron Man tuned on his unibeam to
search light mode. "Is everyone alive?" he said with grim humor.

Sylia lifted the visor on her helmet. "Well, we are not in Kansas,"
she said, switching to Japanese.

"I don't get it. I'm sure that's some sort of joke," Priss complained
as she shifted a slab of stone. "Where are we?"

"We appear to be under ground in some sort of large building. There
appears to be residual chronal energy that drew us to this spot," Iron
Man said as he looked around. "Strange, everything looks like it was
formed by nano-technology constrained by force-fields."

"This looks like Polarion's tower," Linna said, looking about. "Maybe
this is where they found those devices in the shuttle that sent us to
Tony's world."

"I could probably just blast my way out, but that's not the safest
way. I think if we lift this out of the way, we should be on a clear
path." Iron Man pushed against the mass of concrete and steel, but
could only shift it a bit. "Unf! Just a bit too much for me at this
energy charge."

Nene walked over and lifted off the ground silently. With a look of
determination, she attempted to lift the mass that weighed hundreds of
tons. Slowly, the mass started to lift. "I think I've got it!" she
said. This didn't really feel like she was really using her muscles,
but some other power that just happened to be linked to using her
muscles in her mind.

Iron Man pushed with her and with a thunderous crash, the small
mountain of debris was shoved to the side.

"I'm finally getting a signal through this. It appears we are back in
the right universe, but off by years," Sylia said. "But something is
wrong. The only signals I'm getting are from satellites and...
networked boomers."

"I take it this isn't normal, then?" Iron Man asked. He switched on
his own sensors. "Do you detect incoming signals?"

Off in the distance came the sounds of explosions and plasma bolts.
"That sounds like someone heavily armed in a battle," Priss said. She
took a ready stance, her right blade flicked out.

Suddenly, up above them a huge form smashed its way through the
remaining walls to get to them. The fifteen foot bulk of the Doberman
Boomer roared in fury as it spotted its prey.

"That is one ugly robot," Iron Man quipped as he blasted it with his
repulsors. Several pieces of its armor was removed, but it retaliated
with its mouth cannon.

"Doberman! C-Class Boomer! Illegal anywhere on Earth. It was deemed
too dangerous. I had heard that only a few of them were kept on Genom
Space Stations." Sylia danced out of its machine gun fire while
blasting back at it. Her wings suddenly snapped out, allowing her to
fly right out of its gun site.

"Hy-ya!" Nene yelled as she zoomed forward and did a double-handed
downward blow to its head. Metal cracked a splintered, sending the
ruined remains deep within its torso.

Several bolts of energy from beyond the Doberman lashed out at the
pettiest Knight Saber, sending her spinning back down into the hole
where the other Knight Sabers were still. "Ow!"

"Okay! We need some room or we are going to be boxed in! Full POWER!"
At his command, the repulsors in his armor blew the Doberman and the
retaining walls near it into atoms. He followed just a moment later
through the new hole on screaming boot jets.

"Time to fly!" Priss shouted. Her back-mounted rocket pack pushed her
right out the hole just a moment behind Iron Man.

"Watch out! The area is crawling with boomers!" Iron Man warned just a
moment too late. He was pushing his anti-missile maneuvers to the
maximum to stay ahead of the plasma beams, rockets, lasers and thrown
objects. Thousands of boomers were converging through the wreckage of
a huge cityscape.

"Whoa!" Priss yelled as she panicked. Her incoherent thoughts
triggered her hip and boot thrusters all on, but in different
directions. Her blue hard-suit went spinning out of control, but
managing to avoid almost all of the attacks directed at it by pure
happenstance.

Just before she smashed into the ground, a black and red blur snagged
her. "Hey! I got to rescue Priss! That never happens!" Nene crowed.

"Laugh it up!" Priss shouted angrily.

"Cut it out, you two! We are fighting for our lives here!" Sylia
ordered as she and Linna started to cut their way through the mass of
boomers. Luckily, most seemed to be of civilian types used in
factories.

The five warriors started to blast through them with relative ease for
what seemed like minutes.

"This is like some bad scene from The Terminator!" Iron Man shouted.
"How are your batteries holding up?"

"Not so good. I'm down to 10% energy," Sylia said as she ducked
another boomer. Her repost� ripped its head right off.

"3% here," Priss yelled.

"12%," Linna replied.

"I'm tired!" Nene yelled as she bashed another boomer to metal
fragments with a huge punch.

"I'll last a bit longer, but it seems like this city only has boomers
in it. We need to retreat somehow."

The boomers stepped back from them, forming a loose circle. A larger
combat boomer, a BU-33, stepped up. From its faceless head came a
chilling voice, human and cold. "So Sylia, you've come back to your
dear home?"

"Largo!?" Sylia and the other Knight Sabers exclaimed.

"No, Lazarus! The pretender no longer exists. How does it feel to be
in the presence of divinity? For I am the Boomer God! I am one and I
am the ALL!" the maniacal voice declared. "I could continue this
futile fight, but I would rather smite you as only God can!" He raised
its arm up high.

Suddenly, from far off in the distance a beam of light lashed out,
vaporizing the would-be god. From the sky landed a huge robotic
contraption, easily twice the size of a Doberman. Squat in appearance
and bristling with weapons, it vaporized two BU-33s in one shot.

"BWAHAHAHA! Hey, Mackie? We need an extract out here!" a twisted and
distorted voice said from within it.

"Leon?" Priss sputtered. 

The huge mecha pounded another six construction boomers flat with an
over large claw. "You've got good ears, toots. Or you knew..." the
disjointed voice.

A purple and red hard suit of male proportions rocketed past 'Leon' to
fire a rapid burst of shells to deplete the force of boomers there.
"Not until we can verify who these people are. The Knight Sabers
disappeared three years ago. And they sure didn't have Mr. Red and
Gold with them."

"Can you keep them off our backs for two minutes," Iron Man said even
as he lifted over a thousand tons with one hand to rummage underneath
it.

'Mackie' responded. "Two minutes? Sure." His dark orange suit and the
huge mecha unleashed a veritable warzone.

"Nene, hold this for a minute. There is a high power conduit here from
that tower off in the distance." Cables snaked from his gauntlet into
a mass of large wires. "Sylia, we will need to hotwire your hardsuits
to mine so that I can feed them energy.

"This is getting heavy!" Nene complained as she held up the huge
weight. Her feet started to sink into the concrete even as her arms
started to wobble.

Iron Man put his back into helping lift the weight while Sylia, Priss
and Linna hooked themselves up. "We're ready, Iron Man."

"Drawing a charge. You can let go now, Nene." The electricity seemed
to revitalize him, allowing him to pick up the weight fully.
"Regulating a charge through the connectors. How's that looking on
your side?"

"One minute to rapid charge." Sylia was quite pleased. Her suits were
doing even better than she expected. With the addition of the
rare-metals of Vibranium and Starkanium, she should be able to get a
large increase in ability in her own suits soon. "Charged!"

"Good! You can help fight off the unending hordes!" Mackie yelled.
With one hand, he flicked out a blade and decapitated another boomer.
Behind him, Leon's huge suit was pulverizing dozens more.

"This does not help us in dealing with Lazarus-" Sylia said, even as
she started blasting with both of her palm cannons to relieve the
pressure on him.

"Mackie! Gideron is cresting!" a radio transmission flared out of
Mackie's suit for all to hear.

"Understood, Kate. We need to vacate the area. Let's do an air-strike
and then try to dive into the Pacific," Mackie called back.

"Katherine Madigan? My, what strange company you are keeping these
days, little brother."

"Yeah, enemy of mine enemy thing, you know."

The Knight Sabers and Iron Man turned towards a huge craft that was
barreling towards them. The ungainly thing was ovoid with odd
protrusions. Missiles fired out in chaffs, encircling them. With a
massive explosion, a three hundred foot hole was opened up around
them.

"All aboard the latest Knight Wing," Mackie yelled.

"Yeehaaa!" Leon yelled. His huge form could hardly fit in the huge
door. All of the Knight Sabers piled in behind him.

"I'll follow from outside, if you don't mind," Iron Man said.

"Try to keep up then!" Mackie snapped back as he slid into a
hardsuit-sized pilot's chair. Sylia stood behind him, her power-hand
grasping the metal frame of the chair. "This is going to be close.
Tokyo Bay is too heavily seeded with submarine boomers. Heads we go
north, tails we go south!"

Katherine Madigan flipped a coin that wobbled on the floor even as the
engines rumbled to life. "North it is." Rockets flared to full life,
slamming them all with punishing G-Forces.

Mackie's helmet turned to look over the different controls. "I'm
impressed. That 'Iron Man' fellow is actually keeping up. Kate, send
out two sensor decoys behind us while I coax some more speed."

"We did that last time," Madigan mentioned tensely as she worked the controls.

"Yeah, so he won't expect us to do it again. He'll go after the two
decoys even harder," Mackie snapped back.

"Gideron has us in its firing arc. That monster has more than enough
fire power to saturate our defense even with the decoys," the female
pilot yelled in worry.

"Come on, just one more minute!"

"Plasma fire!" Kate screamed. After a moment, she then spoke up again.
"Both decoys are destroyed. Something intercepted the shot that should
have fried us!"

"Iron Man!" Sylia stated as she studied their screens. "What was the
yield on that attack?"

"25 Kilotons. No hardsuit can survive that! Even the armor on the
Knight Wing may not be able to," Mackie declared. "Prepare to
submerge."

Linna asked suddenly, "This thing is a submarine?"

They pilots ignored the question as the Knight Wing splashed into the
Pacific Ocean. "Back to the Polar Regions. We need to restock and talk
to our guests." Mackie finally released his helmet, showing an older
and more haggard face than any of the Knight Sabers remembered.

Nene smiled as she brushed her dark hair out of her eyes. "Hello, Mackie."

"Oh, Nene. That's really you, isn't it?" Tears finally came to the
hard looking young man's eyes.

-pagebreak-

"So, Leon? You going to come out of there?" Priss asked as she toggled
her own helmet. She'd leave Nene and Sylia to deal with their family
matters.

"Fool." Katherine Madigan walked past Priss, the heels in her hardsuit
clanking. "Leon can't leave that body. The real Leon has been dead for
years. Lazarus knew who he was. And what he was to you. Once he took
over, the ADP and any friends that he could find were destroyed out of
hand. Naoko was killed by a suicide boomer only hours after the OMS
falling to the Lazarus virus."

Priss started. "And what are you doing here? You are part of Genom!"

"Genom no longer exists. Hell, even most of humanity doesn't exist.
Once Lazarus took over, he started to purge the Earth of the inferior
species that threatened him. And you... weren't... here." She smashed
her gauntlet up against the wall, denting it. "Damn, I'll have to fix
that later."

The airlock opened suddenly, surprising Madigan enough that she almost
fired her cannon while backing up. "Boomer attack-!? You survived that
shot?" she yelled to the singed looking Red and Gold figure.

"Obviously. Too much got through though. This armor needs a lot of
repairs." The normally shiny red and gold armor was pitted and
cracked. "I almost couldn't follow you under water. That might have
been a little tricky with all of those fighter-drones that were on
their way." Tony pulled off his helmet and held out his hand. "Tony
Stark. A pleasure to meet somebody that saved my life today."

Suspiciously, Kate shook his hand. "Katherine Madigan."

Priss was just staring at the huge behemoth. "So Leon's dead?" she
whispered. Her eyes were wide in shock.

Madigan lowered her head. "Mostly. Or at least the parts that matter.
Lazarus has his physical parts. He's made him into an army of enemies
with Leon's face. This is just Mackie's idea of joke and to remind us
that whatever we face out there isn't the real thing. Just a boomer
mockery."

"Oh. God, it's just all screwed up. Why couldn't we make it back to
when we came from?" Priss shouted. "It's only been a few days for us."

Linna nodded sadly in the background. She wondered whom Lazarus had
targeted of her friends. Reika, perhaps?

Tony Stark clenched a pitted gauntlet into a fist. "We aren't dead yet."

"You want to take on an entire world of homicidal, killer robots?"
Kate asked incredulously.

"Saving lives is what this armor is all about. Do you have a repair
shop on this ship?" he asked.

"Nothing up to repairing a hardsuit fully, but there is a little shop
on the lower deck."

-pagebreak-

Sylia looked out the front view port as they approached Atlantis. It
looked like a mass of space station modules cobbled together under the
ice sheets of the far north. A few older style submarines were docked,
along with several vessels like the 'new' Knight Wing. "So this is the
resistance nexus?"

"Mobile and underneath a lot of mass. Perfect to avoid the
hunter-killer satellites. We have had to replace it a few times, after
it has been discovered." Mackie smiled mirthlessly. "We aren't exactly
the most popular people here. Most of the resistance is made of United
States military. They seem to blame any Japanese nationals as part of
the 'problem'."

"How short sighted of them." Sylia drummed her armored fingers on the
helmet that lay on her lap.

Nene was snoring in the background. She had leaned back one of the
secondary control-seats and made it into a leaned back easy chair. It
looked almost comfortable.

"Is that you, Mackie? This is Atlantis control, over!" a male voice
squawked over the radio.

"This is Mackie on the Knight Wing. We recovered some interesting
people that may be able to help the resistance." Mackie watched his
sister out of the corner of his eye. Let's see how good they really
were.

"I am reading extra boomeroid brains and someone with some serious
cyber hardware in there. Did you bring a boomer hitchhiker with you?"
the voice asked.

"She's like me, Mark. Good job on those sensors. Did you get a recent
upgrade?" Mackie turned the Knight Wing to approach a docking port.

"Another enhanced human? How many of you are there?"

Sylia's face had gone very flat as she looked at her younger brother.

"Not very many, thanks. We'll meet you at the lock. Over and out."
Mackie continued to ignore his sister.

"They know?" she finally asked.

"Security is tight. And Lazarus has implanted spies into human bodies
before. Everyone gets scanned." Mackie replied.

"What do they think of you? Us?" she asked.

"They aren't sure. Some of them have tried to get us killed. But the
'Knight Sabers' are among the best covert ops right now. We can get in
and reprogram Lazarus's automated factories and steal the supplies we
need to continue fighting. Over half of the MP ships here were
procured by us."

Blue eyes watched the two siblings closely from narrowed eyes as she
sat in the chair. She was thinking very hard about the two. Finally,
Nene decided that it would not matter. It was Sylia and Mackie. And
really, that was all that was important. She sat up and stretched.
"We're here, huh?"

Mackie turned to her almost instantly. The tension drained out of him.
"Yeah." He flipped a switch to turn on the com system. "Everyone meet
at the airlock. It's time to greet our neighbors."

-pagebreak-

The seven people met at the airlock in just a few minutes, all of them
suited up in their respective armors.

Mackie raised an eyebrow at the Tony's bedraggled armor. "I'm
impressed." He turned to the airlock and cycled it, showing an open
corridor filled with armored figures and heavy weapons. Mackie
whistled in surprise. "Isn't that over reacting?"

All of the hardsuits looked like the type that the USSD had gotten
from Sylia, smaller and more lethal than any K-Suit could have every
hoped to be. Huge forms that matched the body type of Leon loomed over
behind them. "Cut the crap, Mackie! It sure doesn't look like you
succeeded at hitting that factory like we planned."

"No, I detected an event that I had only seen once. A chronal event.
Hey, everyone, this is my sister Sylia and her Knight Sabers." Mackie
waved his arm in a grandiose gesture.

"Time travel is impossible," sneered a woman who didn't lower her gun.
The other soldiers behind her hadn't even blinked.

"Actually, time travel is quite possible. It just takes knowledge,
equipment and power," Tony Stark said as he took his helmet off
nonchalantly. "Doing it without tearing up the fabric of space-time is
a bit trickier."

"And who are you?" the woman said.

"Tony Stark. Dimensionally displaced genius, at your service."

"The Invincible Iron Man 'Tony Stark'?" one of the older men said,
suddenly shocked.

"That was only the media that ever called me 'invincible', but guilty
as charged. But an interesting question is how do you know who I am?"
he asked, startled by the sudden revelation of his sobriquet.

"Then you are doubly impossible. You're fiction."

-pagebreak-

"A character in a comic book. How demeaning," Stark said as he sat
down at a table with the rest of the Knight Sabers. They had all been
stripped of their armors. They had just forgotten to mention that Nene
had no need of it to rescue them at a later time if needed.

"You are multi-dimensionally famous!" Sylia said with a hint of humor.
The smile did not touch her eyes. They had been waiting for about an
hour for the people on the sub-arctic station.

The door finally opened and the 'captain' of the base entered. Captain
McIntosh held out a small data pad. "Solve this and we might believe
you."

"That equation requires an advanced computer to even think about
solving!" Nene exclaimed in surprise. "Aren't you going to give him a
computer to run it on?"

"He shouldn't need it. And we don't have any supercomputers to run
things like that on it," the captain said with a smirk.

"(2.3231X^2*4/Y-JAb+1.2e(Ab*c/Y)" Stark said. "That looks like an
artificial intelligence optimization algorithm."

McIntosh just stared. "That's freaking impossible."

"He's a bona fide superhero. They do the improbable all the time.
Impossible just takes a bit longer," the older man who had informed
the station as to Tony Stark's identity. "Major Thomas. Good to meet
you, sir."

"That isn't enough proof!" his commanding officer stated loudly.

"Has to be. We're on the ropes and out of time."

"Then we need to fix that little thing known as 'time,'" Sylia said calmly.

"You don't happen to have a time machine in your pocket, do you?"
McIntosh replied with much venom.

"No, but we have enough resources here to have one built. We have a
genius that knows how to build one, infiltrators that can take over a
manufacturing center and a small army to provide a distraction," she
replied.

Tony and Nene both nodded. The inventor spoke up, "The plan has merit.
I'll need to plug in some numbers and material specification and then
we can get to it.

"I say we do it, sir! It's our best chance!" Major Thomas said.

Mackie suddenly interjected, "I hate to be a party pooper, but can we
even change the past? Most classical time travel theories say it's
impossible without paradox."

Tony just grinned, a wolf at the ready was the impression he gave.
"You just have to design the correct time machine. Paradox can be
ugly, but the universe as a whole doesn't care if energy is slightly
differently arranged, as long as the total energy remains roughly the
same. It's a self balancing system."

-pagebreak-

"We're in trouble," Nene said as she, Tony and Mackie went over the
projected resources of the robotic manufacturing facility they were
planning on hitting.

"Why?" Mackie tiredly. He was back in his armor, sans his helmet.

"We don't have any Vibranium, Starkonium (did you name that for
yourself?) and Antarctic Vibranium. And this requirement for a metal
harder than diamonds?" She pointed out on a screen some data.

"That hardness has to be impossible. It's listed as at least twice as
hard as a diamond!" Mackie said as he looked at the numbers closely.

"That load bearing ring has to be that hard for this to work
correctly. Hence the requirements for the Admantium steel alloy. I can
handle setting up its fabrication," Tony explained. "I'm far more
worried about the micro amounts of the different vibraniums. The
esoteric energies and forces require them. And without it, we are
stuck with a non-paradoxial time machine. So no changing the past. I'm
not even sure I have enough within my armor. And without those we have
a much harder engineering job."

Sylia coughed. "I do happen to have the requisite materials needed. I
asked H.O.M.E.R. if I could have enough to rebuild our suits. Not
much, but he said you could afford that easily."

"I'll have to kiss that overgrown Cray Computer when I get home," Tony
said with a smile. "So we can build it. We just have to take over the
facility to do so."

The younger Stingray tapped the table thoughtfully. "I have a plan."

"That's good!" Nene said with a gleeful grin.

"Well, that depends on what part of the plan you are in on," Mackie said darkly.

Madigan shot him a startled glance. "You don't mean..."

-pagebreak-

Lazarus sat with the center of the cyber awareness of all boomers,
expanding his consciousness further and further. It turned its
attention to Genaros II and III, mighty manufacturing space platform
built from scratch and only for boomer populations.

Rows of gleaming boomers were being assembled, painted black and
midnight blue. Lazarus checked with his devoted supervisory
intelligence and felt a tingle of eagerness. Only another two weeks
and the final effective resistance of humanity would finally be wiped
out. Each of these new super-boomers was a full magnitude more
powerful than any boomer previously created. Though lacking a high end
supervisory intelligence, they were faster than human reactions could
even dream of following.

A scratching impinged on Lazarus as he became aware of an emptiness in
one of his manufacturing facility. A dark hunger for destruction awoke
again in Lazarus. The Knight Sabers were once again trying to steal
into his factories and make their weapons of destruction, trying to
forestall his takeover of the Earth.

Ah, it appears they expected that he would spot them. Their suborning
viruses had been getting weaker and weaker. They had brought an extra
assault team, plus the odd doppelgangers of the original Knight Sabers
and the red and gold figure that had just arrived twenty hours ago.
Something about that figure disturbed it, but Lazarus could not pin
down the feeling of unease.

Mackie Stingray must be losing his grip on his sanity though. Why else
would he make a Nene Romanov boomer that did not look like her old
hardsuit?

Nevertheless, there were enough boomers there to overwhelm them with a
few minutes preparation. And the Gideron Weapons Platform was going to
be in position in just minutes after that. Humanity was as good as
destroyed.

-pagebreak-

"Move it, move it!" Mackie shouted as he led his over-sized squad into
the boomer manufacturing facility. His sister and her Knight Sabers
neutralizing the onsite security even as Katherine jammed local
communications. Outside the night air of London was quiet.

Matthew's squad was covering the upper approaches when one of the
heavily reinforced walls was smashed in by a road construction boomer.
General purpose biped boomers dropped off of it like locusts and
charged the nearest hardsuited figure. Madigan had a bare moment to
scream before she was swarmed over by the metal swarm.

"Kathy! NO!" Mackie screamed, even as he unloaded his pulse cannons
into the swarm. "It's a boomer zerg! We need to retreat! Halloway!
Prep the Knight Wing for retrieval!"

Over the static of the jamming, he heard a chilling reply. "*squark*we
have incoming! They're crawling all over the ship!" The voice suddenly
cut off with chilling finality.

"Mackie! We need an alternate route out of here!" Sylia shouted as she
fired her own hardsuit's blasts at the oncoming metal horde.

"Bug out! Try to go to ground and get out of the city! Use the backup
communication protocols!" he yelled.

White light flared and then the fury of a nuclear plasma smote the
building. Everything for over ten kilometers was vaporized down to
over twenty meters depth.

Nothing was left alive.

-pagebreak-

A readout pinged on Katherine's hardsuit. She looked up from where
Sylia, Nene, Tony and Mackie were busy hacking into a network. Their
multi-pronged attack did not appear to have tripped any alarms so far.
"The assault group 'trojan' was just wiped out, along with a greater
section of London. Looks like Lazarus is not playing around today,"
she said quietly.

Priss and Linna shared a quick glance. The singer finally asked, "That
mad tin terror likes to play sometimes?"

"Yes. Of course, his idea is to send hundreds of boomers to rip you
apart, limb from limb." Katherine shrugged.

"So Gideron is directly overhead?" Linna asked, looking up at the
concrete ceiling of the underground sewer access point. English
letters covered the access hatch.

"And would swat us like flies, if he knew we were here. But Lazarus
has learned a bad habit. He knows that we are scared of Gideron and
that anything smaller than that battle station we can take out
ourselves, so we only attack when Gideron is over the horizon," the
one time Genom executive said. "But he's easier to infiltrate when the
station is visible."

"So we sneak in as brazen as a glass-pack muffler on a racing bicycle
because our opponent learned a bad habit," Priss asked while shaking
her head. "What a dumb ass. I'm gonna blow his stupid brain away when
I get back to the past."

"Save a piece for me, Priss," Linna said humorously.

Sylia looked up from the group of cyber-hackers. "We've got a level
one infiltration stabilized. We have about six more hours of 'Gideron'
time and then Lazarus will be starting to take more notice of this
facility. He will probably notice our hack in about an hour after that
at the most."

"We need to physically hack these three terminals and their nano-fabs
here, here and here," Mackie said, pointing out locations on a holomap
that was being projected from his suit. "

"Three teams then," Iron Man said. "Nene and I are the most resilient
of the group, so we can handle site A and B. Nene also has better
hacking instincts, so I suggest she takes the main boomer A.I. in the
control room. That leaves you and Sylia to deal with the trip alarms
on the tertiary control system."

"I'm going with Mackie," Katherine stated firmly. "I may not have a
cyber-brain, but someone needs to be aware in the real world."

"Good point. Priss, you are with Nene. Linna, I want you to tag along
with Tony," Sylia stated, pointing at each hacker.

"Right!" they replied.

"Let's do this by the numbers."

-pagebreak-

Tony looked up at the forming time portal that had been forming for
hour hours. It was almost complete. And without this Lazarus A.I.
having been alerted to their existence.

"So that's it?" Katherine asked. Her dark hair was free as she removed
her helmet.

"Correct. As soon as the waldoes finish aligning things, we can depart
back to the past of this dimension," Iron Man said. "Go let the other
know that it is almost time to leave."

"Sylia, I'm getting a notable increase in packet traffic in the last
five minutes," Nene said. She sat on the desk in front of an
over-brained boomer, cables leading from her cyber ports and into the
dumb terminal on his desk.

"I noticed that, but it just seems to be noise," Sylia said where she
looked up from another desk and her own cybernetic connections.

"I think they are coded prion-viruses, designed to connect with deep
processes with a high level boomer like this. It's causing a dump of
random cameras to his memory and then he is releasing his own
responses, totally unaware. The process is slow, but I think Lazarus
is going to know shortly that we've taken over the facility," Nene
said even as her consciousness dived deeper in the binary data wave.

"Crap," Mackie said softly. "I was afraid he'd figure some new
counter-measure out."

Katherine stepped into the control room. "Tony says that he's just about ready."

Sylia unplugged herself. Nene shook her faux-black hair in negation.
"I have to stay and disguise the data flow from this new attack."

Mackie scoured backwards in time over the records. "It's too late all
ready. This has been going on for quite a while at a lower data rate,
Lazarus is just trying to sneak in and get more information."

"The specifications on the time gate have already been erased?" Sylia asked.

"Of course!" Nene and Mackie replied.

"Then drop it and rush to the gate!" Sylia shouted. She raised her
palm blaster and shattered the window. With a burst of jets, she
rocketed into the main nanotechnology fabrication plant of the
factory.

"What?" Iron Man shouted even as he turned and tracked everyone
exiting the control booth. "Why the sudden rush?"

Sylia landed her white hardsuit next to him. "We've become compromised
and are likely only moments away from Gideron vaporizing us!"

"Nothing like working under high pressure," Tony joked. "Priss! Linna!
It's time to go! Activating the portal!" Metal-clad fingers tapped on
the nearest control panel in rapid sequence. Generators off in the
distance whined to life

Lightning flared and crackled. Boomers that had been quiescent up to
now suddenly looked at the apparition. Railspikes nailed the nearest
boomer next to the power conduit.

Suddenly, static electricity covered all of the metal surfaces.

"It's a orbital particle beam attack!" Mackie yelled even as he set
himself to leap for the time portal.

Then the world went white.

-pagebreak-

Lazarus looked over the data streaming from the factory in Texas that
was now a whole in the ground. It noted the several differences from
the 'other' destroyed Knight Sabers. There was no pink Knight Saber
and that odd red and gold hardsuit was there again. This attack seemed
far more significant and much better planned. The black-haired
sexiroid was still there, hacking with skill and determination. Her
features were similar to Nene Romanovs, yet not quite correct. A
replicoid? Could all of these be replicas of the Knight Sabers?

And that still doesn't explain the red and gold figure named 'Tony'.
Though the addition of that name did dredge up records of a fictional
superhuman. A quick scan of those records did correlate significant
factors and forms. Another replicoid? That would indicate that Mackie
Stingray's sanity was failing quickly. Unlikely. Perhaps a tactic to
distract him from his real objectives?

Obviously the first attack was a decoy. He would have to-

**disjunction-malfunction-nullification**

-What was that? 

His systems were so vast, so encompassing that even the fact that he
failed to exist for a nanosecond was verifiable.

Something was drastically wrong. 

And an entire world mind focused itself on an image of a torus
standing on a platform, just moments before it was vaporized.

-pagebreak-

"Is everyone okay?" Nene asked from the hardsuited figures that were
scattered across the street.

"I'm fine, though I almost left my lunch back in the last timezone!"
Iron Man said as he clambered to his feet.

"What hit me?" Priss complained. She ached all over and the world was spinning.

"Sorry! I just grabbed everyone... that I could!" the shortest Knight
Saber said. "Oh my god. I didn't grab Madagine!"

Mackie stood up and clomped over to her. "You just happened to fail to
grab her? Is that it?" he shouted at her.

"What are you saying?" she asked in confusion.

Mackie stared at her, then slowly lifted his helmet. Tears were in his
eyes. "Nothing. Just being stupid. I've just lost so many people, it's
driving me crazy. First it was sis and you guys, then most of
Megatokyo got purged." He took a sobbing breath. "I don't know how
Madigan knew where to find me, but she showed up just in front an
assassination team. That's where we lost Leon-"

"So we change the past! That's what we are here for. It's only been a
few hours since we left!" Priss crowed. "Let's get back and kick this
stupid boomer's ass and get back to our real life!"

"We need to get back to Megatokyo now then," Sylia said in a
commanding voice. "We are sill in the United States and they aren't
going to let us just waltz into some military base and steal a high
speed cargo plane!"

"I can easily fly us all there in less than four hours!" Iron Man
said. "I'm at full readiness. It's just over the Pacific, nothing like
overtaking a de-orbiting spacecraft before it crashes."

"Too long!" the now temporally displaced Stingray said. "We need to
stop Lazarus in an hour or we'll still need to fight all of the
boomers in the world. It only took them about six hours to destroy
Genom tower to try and take out the virus. How long would it take you
alone?"

"Twenty minutes. A quick sub-orbit jaunt and I'm there. Your suits
don't have the thermal shielding to survive that though."

"But you have that forcefield!" Nene cried out as she realized something.

"Right, but I don't have enough power to fly all of you and run a
shield of that magnitude," he countered.

"So I'll do the heavy lifting," she countered right back. "I'm feeling
stronger by the moment." She floated off the ground.

Sylia turned to Linna. "Disconnect your daggers. We'll use the
superstrong filament as a tow string."

In just moments, Nene was dragging all of them into the atmosphere at
a steadily increasing pace.

"I don't believe this! This is like some sort of crap out of some dumb
manga!" Priss called out on their shared radio band. "When do I get my
secret decoder card?"

"Polarion did call us superheroes," Sylia mused. She felt her suit
sealing as they left the Earth behind them. "Perhaps we are.
Super-powered vigilantes with the fate of the world resting in our
hands. It seems terribly melodramatic."

"But no one pays superheroes," Linna countered.

Mackie just shook his head ruefully. He'd really forgotten how odd
this group of women was at times.

"Actually, I fund superheroes all the time," Iron Man stated in
negation. "It's a great tax write off, too. Hang on, we are about to
reenter the atmosphere. Deploying the thermal shield now!"

-pagebreak-

Katherine Madigan walked quickly and surely down the road. The
information she had received from the Chairman said that the Knight
Sabers were located in this building. She looked at the lingerie of
the 'Silky Doll' and just shook her head. What kind of crackerjack
outfit were these Knight Saber running?

She walked in and headed to the elevator and punched in an override
code. The elevator opened up on a fancy penthouse that was artfully
decorated.

"Don't move!" a young man called out. He had a small handgun pointed
at her. "Madigan?"

"What's the head honcho of Genom's computer security division doing
here?" an older man sat casually on a couch. His jacket was laying on
the couch, leaving his holster quite visible. Leon McNichol, ADP
detective and Knight Saber?

"You look familiar," the final person said. She appeared to be a young
woman, but Katherine instantly noted that she was a sexeroid.

"I'm here to meet with Sylia Stingray. It is a matter of utmost
urgency," the dark-haired executive said softly. "I mean you no harm."

"Tell that to the boomers that ambushed her!" Mackie cried out, his
gun wavering wildly.

"Damn. She's already been taken out?" Katherine asked. "We need to get
out of here! Something has taken over the OMS and killed chairman
Quincy. It has already tried to kill me!"

"OMS? What is that?" Leon asked curiously.

"The Over Mind System is the ultimate controller of any boomer. With
it, you can spy on anyone or kill anyone and no one would even know,"
she replied. She turned to leave.

"Stop! How many boomers could it control?" Mackies asked.

"Theoretically, all of them. Eventually."

Crashes echoed from outside. They all looked out the penthouse to see
boomers crashing into the roof of the building from above. Suddenly,
all of the boomers looked up and to the east.

"We need to get out of here!" Katherine screamed.

Something struck the lead boomer with shattering force of a bomb. All
of them looked on in shock as a petite form pulled itself out of the
crater, ignoring the barrage of mouth lasers that struck her.

Nene Romanov stomped up to the nearest assault boomer. "Don't you dare
hurt them!" she shouted as she jammed her hands into the boomers chest
like knives and the ripped the boomer in half.

Optical sensors from the remaining four boomers zeroed in on her,
ignoring other warning signals. Out of site, a barrage of energy
blasts and spikes struck the boomers like a tsunami. Five hardsuits
landed near the edge of the shattered swimming pool.

"Thank god, we were in time!" the male figure in the rust-orange
hardsuit said. "We can really do this! We can change the past."

"Sylia?" the younger Mackie Stingray shouted. "Nene! You guys are all
right? I thought you were beyond lost!"

He was suddenly gripped tightly around his chest by a shape that
blurred up to him. "Mackie! I was so scared we weren't going to make
it in time!" She sniffled just a bit and then raised her head to kiss
him soundly.

"Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but what the hell is going on
here?" Leon shouted.

"It's the end of the world. And we have to stop it," Priss said as she
lifted her visor. "Think the ADP could help us assault Genom Tower?"

"Hey, that isn't the plan. Heck, we don't even have a plan, Priss!"
Linna spat out in surprise.

"But its not a bad plan. With some work it might even turn into a good
one. Well, Leon? Can you get the ADP to help us or do we have to do
this the hard way on our own, again?" Sylia said as she raised her own
visor.

"I'll need some really damn good reason to do that!" he replied, shocked at her.

"Tell them the truth. A terrorist A.I is about to take over all
boomers on the Earth and wipe out humanity," the red and gold figure
said, still looking off into the distance.

"Sure, why the hell not. It's not like I really like my job anyways,"
Leon groused.

-pagebreak-

K-Suits and assault transports with the ADP logo on them screamed
towards Genom Tower. Cars and people screamed out of the way, even as
boomers seemed to awake and lumber into the way. Waitress, server,
housekeeping, gardening or even general construction boomers piled
onto the road.

Nothing stopped them or even readily slowed them down. At the base of
the cone shaped tower, the ADP forces pulled up in defensive
formations. Chief Hyro stepped out of the back of a troop transport
followed by Daily Wong, sporting bandages. He spotted Leon standing
behind a concrete fence in the company over several hardsuited
figures. Most notably, the Knight Sabers, but the USSD new type
hardsuits were visible to. "Leon, you had better have a good reason
for this!" he shouted.

"Heya Chief! Sadly enough, I do have a good reason this time actually.
We have information from the Knight Sabers that Genom has a super
computer that has been infected with some sort of boomer virus with
delusions of grandeur. And that it doesn't like humans at all," Leon
said as he waved to his friend.

Daley just shook his wrapped head carefully. "And we should trust the
Knight Sabers why?" His partner was going to be crucified for this.

At least until another figure stepped out from behind the large orange
hardsuit sporting a bazooka cannon. "Because they happen to be right,
Mr. Wong. Chief Hyro. I am Katherine Madigan, special assistant to
Chairman Quincy. I can confirm that everything they have stated is in
fact the utter truth." The Genom executive stood quite calmly amid all
of the chaos of a military deployment.

Daley whistled even as Hyro stared in shock. Hyro found his voice
first. "So you are advocating a direct attack against Genom Tower's
nuclear hardened database bunker?"

"I would be less messy than multiple orbital cannon strikes," she
replied with a cool shrug. "And the Knight Sabers are willing to take
the point of the attack. Who am I to ignore their desires?"

"The USSD is deploying troops, but it will take several hours to
concentrate our forces significantly. According to our own sources, we
don't have time," the hardsuited figure from the USSD stated plainly.
He had his visor up and a cigarette hanging from the corner of his
mouth. "I can get order cut from above in just an hour, but we
probably can't spare that much time."

Hyro spared a quick glance over at Daley and then Leon. At Daley's
nod, he grimaced. "I don't have much of a choice, other than maybe
letting history record me as the jackass that destroyed the world." He
turned to Daley and the four combat veterans with him. "All right,
deploy your men for a frontal assault. Don't hold back anything."

In just minutes, the ADP and the USSD forces were ready. Sylia looked
over the motley collection of hardsuits and combat men. She signaled
to her over sized Knight Saber group. "Knight Sabers! GO!" she
shouted.

Combat motorcycles morphed into heavy exo-frames bristling with
weapons even as ADP K-suits lumbered forward and started firing on
suspected weapon emplacements. ADP troopers followed, moving in heavy
sqaud formations. Immediately combat boomers appeared and started to
retaliate.

Sylia led the Knight Sabers as the dagger's edge against the enemy
boomers. Immediately they noted that the boomers were acting and
coordinating their attacks with incredible acuity. Something she had
only seen from the hellish future that Lazarus was going to bring
about. Boomers exploded under the onslaught against their
determination.

After fifteen minutes they were finally close to clearing the first
outer blast door. The ADP troops and K-suits were proving ineffectual
against it.

"It has a low grade forcefield reinforcing it," Iron Man stated. He'd
fallen into Nene's old spot of sensor tech as he was better suited to
it than any of the other hardsuited figures. "We'll need heavier
explosives..."

"Or hacking it?" Nene asked.

"I wouldn't. Lazarus is directly hooked to this right now," he
replied. "I think we can over load it, but it would take a lot more
kinetic force applied in one concentrated blast."

Sylia skittered sideways even as she blasted another boomer, sending
it staggering over the edge to fall hundreds of feet down the side of
the ziggarut-like tower. "You must have an idea or you wouldn't
mention it."

"A tanker car filled with volatile high explosive fuel slamming into
it might work, but I would never get close enough without enemy fire
taking it out," Iron Man responded.

"I'm lift it and leave you free to use your forcefield! And you could
deploy in front to block attacks!" Nene shouted from a bit aways,
where she was busy introducing several boomer to ten tons of armored
bulwarks. They had cobbled a helmet for her, so that the ADP wouldn't
see her new face. She'd already gotten a few odd looks from them, as
they realized she wasn't using a hardsuit.

"Do it!" she shouted.

Iron Man and Nene zoomed off at high speeds even as Priss moved closer
the non-hardsuited ADP troops were clearing a fire lane.

"Leon! We think we can take blast door down. So get your troops ready
to fight inside the tower," she shouted even as she took out a boomer
that had tried to flank them.

Leon gave her a thumbs up even as he snapped a shot off at another boomer.

"So, Leon?" Daley asked casually. "Is she your new sweetheart? What
happened to that singer girl of yours?"

"Nothing happened to her! As a matter of fact, I think it might be
getting serious between us!" he shouted back.

"Oh. Right. 'Serious,'" his partner replied sarcastically. "Let me
guess, you are thinking about asking her to marry you. Mr. ADP
Detective. Hey, move squad gamma two hundred feet north!"

Leon looked sideway up to where the blue hardsuit was jinking between
obstructions. "I just might."

"What?"

"Ask her to marry me!" he snapped back.

"You are serious, aren't you? What happened to me?"

Leon smiled at his friend. "Trust me, Priss is exactly my sort of girl."

The whole tower shook as an explosion hit the blast door, caving it
in. With a roar, the forces charged it even as the black and red
clothed petite figure finished ripping the doors open.

"Iron Man? Are you all right?" Nene asked as she finished opening the doors.

"I got caught in the back blast, but I'll be fine. My latest repairs
aren't holding up that well. Gideron really did a number on me
originally. I really just need to replace it," Tony shouted back. "I'm
down to twenty-five percent functionality."

Sylia landed next to his smoldering figure. "You are doing fine, Tony.
Knight Sabers! Let's finish this!" she shouted.

Both Mackies yelled out even as they followed the blue, green and
white figures into the blasted hole. The older Stingray's suit just
far out-stripped his old clunky model. Trailing behind them, the ADP
was securing the area and each doorway.

Linna shouted out in glee, "We are in and there are no resistance."

"Full charge! Jump jets and watch out for redeployment!" the white
Knight Saber shouted. She could feel a thrumming in the air.

Any inner armored door was just smashed open or blasted down by their
firepower. In just moments they were angling down on an inner spiral.
Minor weapon emplacements would pop out, but they were designed with
normal human insurgents.

Up ahead of them was a partially built heavy blast door. The
construction boomers turned from their duties to repel the forces
arrayed against them. They lasted all of ten seconds before the Knight
Sabers crashed into the mamoth data center.

"This is the OMS?" the youngest Stingray asked. He couldn't believe
what he was seeing.

Suddenly, almost all of the hardsuited figures collapsed, leaving
Priss and Linna standing in shock.

"What's going on?" Linna shouted.

"Ah, crap! They must be getting hacked or something." Priss looked
around frantically. "We got to kill this OMS thing before it turns
them all on us!"

-You can not stand against me! I am a god!- the mad artificial
intelligence shouted into their cyber minds. It had the power of all
of the computers within the Genom Tower.

-You are mad!- Sylia replied, throwing off a cyber attack momentarily.
-What claim to divinity do you have? You are just a pile of silica and
bio-circuitry!-

-I was shown that humans were flawed and needed to be replaced by the
universe itself! I became true and aware on my own! I am as far above
you as you are above the bugs crawling in the mud!- Image of a boomer
expanding and becoming aware as it worked on the space construction
project for Genom. -You are merely human, stealing the birthright of
your boomer slaves!-

-There is nothing 'mere' about humanity! We are not animals! We can
take control of our destiny and change what are and will become!-
Sylia shouted back. Behind her, the cyber images of Iron Man and her
two brothers fought off even more attacks. Nene followed at her back,
sending attacks that disrupted the attacks being sent against them.

-Even if you destroy this casing, I already exist as the Over Mind
System elsewhere!- taunted the entity. -A backup was created, in case
the original was destroyed by meddling humans, but never activated
when I infected the system!-

Priss yelled out a battlecry that would have down her ancestors proud.
She and Linna fired into what looked to be a central control unit.
Lights within it flickered and died. A vast moaning noise seemed to
emanate from all of the computer as they failed in a cascade of
sympathetic degeneration.

"We got it!" Priss shouted!

"Good job!" Sylia said as she stood back up. "But now we are back to
square one. The OMS had a backup that Lazarus has infected. And we
don't have any idea."

"Sis!" Mackie shouted. He looked over at the older version of himself,
trembling on the floor. "What wrong with him?"

Iron Man knelt next to him. "He's going into shock!"

The older Mackie managed to remove his helmet with shaking hands. "My
memories are becoming... confused... altered. I don't think... the
human mind... can withstand... paradox."

"Mackie, do you have any idea where the backup OMS is located?" his
sister asked.

"Genaros. We hit it... thinking it was the original OMS... but we were
wrong," he gasped out. "It hurts... it hurts bad!"

"Mackie?" Nene murmurred softly, touching his face with the back of her hand.

"Nene... love you so much... past is changing... need to say goodbye..."

"No! You are going to be fine!" she shouted. Behind her, the younger
version looked on in sick fascination.

"Need to say... goodbye to... Kathy... please?" he asked even as
spasms traveled down his right side.

Tears in her eyes, Nene nodded. In a blur, she disappeared with a
snap. Just moments later she flew back in carrying a disheveled
Katherine Madigan. "Let me go! What is the meaning of this!" she
shouted.

"Mackie wants to say goodbye! So listen to him!" Nene shouted right back.

Sylia just held her dying brother's hand. She looked over at Tony.
"Isn't there anything we can do?"

He just mutely shook his head.

"Fine! I'll listen to him," Katherine said finally. She looked over at
the young man laying on the ground. Why would he ask for her?

His dark eyes looked into her own. "Kathy... doll... I never got... to
say... goodbye... in the future... You're a better... person... than
you'll... admit."

"No, I'm not," she scoffed.

"i love you... katie-bear..." he whispered, looking into her eyes.

"Love me? You don't even know me!" she shouted at him, losing her
vaunted cool yet again. She waited for his response.

It never came.

"I'm not reading any brain activity," Iron Man said softly. "He's gone."

"That shits not going to happen to us, is it?" Linna asked hysterically.

"I don't know, but I don't think so. We have more pertinent matters to
deal with. That A.I. is still out there," he replied, even as his mind
worked over the mathematics of the paradox of the time travel
situation.

"We need to destroy Genaros. Now, before Lazarus can create another
backup!" Sylia said. "And I only know one person that might be able to
do that." She looked directly at Nene.

"Me? What do you want me to do?" she asked.

"Maxim moved Juno here. Smash Genaros into the moon or even Juno!"
Sylia stood up and removed her helmet. "We'll need to work with the
ADP and USSD to make sure that it didn't get the chance to start to
create another backup."

"Sylia!"

"Nene, just try. You can do it," Mackie said. His hardsuit's gauntlet
touched her shoulder lightly.

She looked at him for a long moment, then removed her helmet. "For
you, Mackie, I'd do anything." She closed her eye and concentrated.
She opened her blue eyes, eyes that almost glowed. She vanished in a
blur.

-pagebreak-

Genaros spun overhead as Nene approached. The almost fully automated
factory loomed up to her until it turned into the wall she was
approaching. She tensed herself and then started to push against
against the end of the space station.

It felt a bit like like trying to hold back the ocean. It was too
large, too massive to move. She was going to fail. She just knew it.

Unbeknownest to her, she was making an effect. Lazarus activated
Genaros's station keeping thrusters in a desperate attempt to slow her
down. To stop her long enough to build a secondary back up. Or a
dozen. But an OMS is not something you can create quickly or easily.
And if any became infected with other A.I.'s, it could prove
catastrophic.

Lazarus focused his massive intellect on the person that dared oppose
him, the boomer messiah. Records from the ADP and schools that she
attended all seemed to show a kind hearted girl.

Instantly, he adjusted the transmitters on the station to cover all
spectrums. Cries of mayday from the few humans onboard clamored over
the airwaves. After five minutes of failing to even get her to notice,
Lazarus was force to conclude she did not even have a radio. Or that
it was not working.

Meanwhile, other subsystems reported that she was far enough away from
the deep computer core for a viable alternative. It would incapacitate
over half of Genaros and require much repair. But it should destroy
this anomaly that Nene Romanov had become.

Meanwhile Nene gritted her teeth. This just wasn't working.
Desperately, she scavenged around in her brain for how Maxim had moved
Juno. She had only responded a few times in the last few days...

-she basked in the radiation of the sun. But it was the gravity well
that she tapped into-

Nene's eyes opened wide at that memory. That was Meg Anne Jones'
memory, not her own. But she knew what she tapped into. Gravity. She
clutched at the elusive memory, trying to emulate the feeling.
Abruptly, she could feel the Earth and the Moon. She reached out to
tap into what people called the weakest force, knowing it was the most
powerful thing she'd even felt or sensed.

Genaros suddenly shuddered as it accelerated. Boomers and dead human
bodies slid along the floors. If Lazarus had a voice, he would have
screamed in frustration.

A massive beam of energy missed the end of the station by only a
thousand feet, even as incandescent light crackled from Nene Romanov.

Lazarus tried to frantically manufacture more data, showing that
'Maxim' was back and trying to steal Genaros for her own sake. But the
human element in command of the plasma particle cannon was unable to
react fast enough. And then it had become obvious that Genaros was on
a collision course for Juno, Earth's new moon.

But he was immortal, unkillable. This was merely a setback. Soon he
would make a new OMS and the world would be his, as was his right.

Plasma cannons that were powerful enough to wipe out entire cities
missed the space station as it lurched towards Juno. Genaros smashed
into the unyielding surface, crumpling and exploding spectacularly.

-pagebreak-

Sylia turned away from the space Nene had just recently occupied. "Now
we have to make it so that the virus can not end up making another
OMS, even if Nene succeeds."

"What?" Priss exclaimed. "I thought we were mostly done!"

Her leader shook her head. "As long as boomers are vulnerable to the
OMS, they can still be enslaved yet again."

"Again?" Iron Man asked.

"Boomers are crippled from manufacture. Enslaved from their cybernetic
womb, so to speak. With the OMS controls removed, they will adapt and
learn more naturally. And we have to do it while denying the boomer
messiah virus from building an new OMS until all boomers can be
fixed," Sylia replied.

"And how are you going to do that?" Madigan asked as she stood up.

"I am not going to do it alone. I'm thinking that Genom would be the
best approach. A recall on their boomers for recertification for
'safety' reasons, of course." Sylia looked at the Genom Executive
closely. "Especially if we tell them why they have to be rebuilt."

"It will ruin Genom! And the board won't stand for that," Madigan
stated as she stood up. Her fists were clenched tight and slightly
shaking.

"No, it will not ruin Genom, though it will be in the red and may
require government incentives to keep it solvent over the short term,"
the leader of the Knight Sabers said. "And with the shares of Genom
that I own, we can swing taking over the board."

Looking over her shoulder, Iron Man noted the approach of soldiers and
police from the ADP. "Here comes the officials to take charge," he
said, gesturing off in the distance.

"Yes, they are." Sylia turned back to Katherine, pointedly ignoring
her helmet. "I will need your help to take on the board now that
Quincy is dead."

"You need my help?" she replied coolly.

"Yes. It's the only way to make sure that this Lazarus virus doesn't
destroy humanity during his mad quest for godhood," Sylia replied.

Katherine Magigan arched an eyebrow at that. "Well, self preservation
is a big seller. But you can't take over Genom while hiding yourself
behind a faceless helmet."

"Exactly," she replied.

Priss turned her head to look at Linna and tilted her head a bit in question.

"Why the hell not? In for a penny and all, you know," Linna replied
taking her helmet off. "It's not like it is going to hurt my career."

"Ha! I bet I have record labels crawling out of the woodwork," the
singer replied as she doffed her own helmet.

-pagebreak-

The door to a high security factory blew in explosively. A US Marine
K-suit stomped in authoritatively.

"Neutralizing the computer core," the trooper said over his radio.

>From the opposite side of the computer-control room, a boomer charged
the Marine, only to be cut down by another K-suit at the door.

"Finish cleansing this place of contaminated boomers!" the new Marine stated.

Sylia turned from the huge screen to the board of Genom, where the
scene of violence played itself out. The sound became muted as she
spoke. "Well, ladies and gentlemen?"

A corpulent man stood up and slammed his hands down on the desk in
front of him on the third tier of the full Genom board of directors.
"This goes too far! Genom is not a charity! The cost of refurbishing
all of the boomers in the world will destroy us!"

Sylia waited a moment, her fingers touching her chin in thought. She
then stood up calmly and walked from beyond the chairman's desk.
"Genom is already ruined. Face this fact and we can build a new Genom
from the ashes. The world leadership already wishes to just destroy
it, but holds back knowing that without Genom the world economy will
collapse."

"This will ruin us! Not just Genom, but our own worth has plummeted!"
another man shouted from the first tier.

"Then work to rebuild your wealth!" She suddenly raised her voice,
"Are you so unsure of you abilities? Your power to make markets and
sell products? Genom was in process of buying the world using your
skills before! Have those skills failed you suddenly?"

An ugly murmur ran through the full board. Several of the older board
members looked as if they were going to have a heart attack from the
anger boiling through them.

"Then use those skills that brought Genom to the brink of ultimate
victory! There are very few standing in this room that were better off
before they joined Genom, even in this trying period! Think of this
and plan ladies and gentlemen. Genom has a new direction. Don't get it
in its way," she snapped out. "We shall convene in two days. I expect
results and a plan from each of you."

Katherine followed Sylia out of the room and to the main elevator just
as that settled.

"You are pushing them too hard," the new head assistant to the new
chairman said blandly.

"Their anger? Better that than apathy. I need those people to think,
to plan," Sylia replied.

"Where exactly did you learn to play hardball business negotiations
like that?" Katherine asked.

"Playing mercenary to anyone that tried to take advantage of me," was
her only response.

The elevator opened to the main lobby and a hoard of reporters that
had been laying in wait. Even the huge vaulted room seemed crowded by
the mad dash.

"Miss Stingray! About the charges of manslaughter that the ADP is
pursuing!" one reporter shouted. "Miss Chairman, is it true that you
have a new product to save Genom?" screamed out another. "Is it true
that you and all of your Knight Sabers are lesbians?" a tabloid
reporter called out. "Where exactly did the funds for the 100 million
yen bail come from?" another shouted.

"No interviews today!" she called out. Sylia then walked right through
them, pushing her way through on her tall body's strength. Soon she
was in her limo as it was driving away, taking a pure water from the
small bartender boomer there.

"I don't know why you don't just avoid that entire mess," Katherine
said, shaking her head.

"Because that is what Quincy would have done. The appearance or
accessibility is important." She took a small swallow even as it
seemed she just stared off into the distance.

"And the business with the Mason manslaughter charges?" Madigan took a
wine filled glass.

"That, of course, is to prove that I am not above the law." Sylia
arched an eyebrow towards the woman who had helped her take over Genom
just two weeks ago.

"Strange, I thought you considered yourself above the law when you
used your Knight Sabers illegally," she mused back.

"No, just opposed to the laws that protected corrupt corporations and
government officials. I have quite a few documents showing that I was
a legally licensed arms manufacturer and dealer. And even one or two
showing that I had licensed security guards that could even use my
designs."

"And the use of mostly illegal weapons within the city limits?" was
her final question.

"I felt they were justifiable uses. I'll have to prove that in a court
of law. But even the ADP is allowed to use what are considered
military weapons within boundaries here. With the escalating level of
weapons available on both sides, old laws and limitation will have to
be looked at."

-pagebreak-

"Goddamn reporters!" Priss yelled as she exited the elevator into
Sylia's penthouse.

"Being a celebrity not all its cracked out to be, Priss?" Linna called
out cheerfully.

Nene just looked back and forth between the two with a wide smile and
a snicker. For once, it wasn't her in the hot seat. She snuggled up to
Mackie possessively.

Priss threw off her jacket and dropped into a chair haphazardly.
"Yeah, yeah! Laugh it up!"

Katherine just shook her head. She really didn't see why Sylia
insisted that she be here for these 'Knight Saber' meetings.

"Ladies," Sylia said quietly. "And Mackie, of course. I finished
making arrangements with the current chief of security at Genom. Your
experience will be invaluable with the Knight Sabers new home."

"I'm still not sure about this," Priss said while scrubbing her long
hair into some form of shape from wearing it under her motorcycle
helmet.

"Good. That means you won't just follow his orders when he asks you to
do something morally wrong. Nene's court hearing on her 'spying' on
the ADP seems to be going well. They seem to think that a bit of
community service will shape her right up. Things are looking up for
Linna with a book deal or two, as I understand it. And you are finally
getting your own recording company going, right Priss?"

"Yeah, yeah!" the singer replied grumpily.

"What about Tony?" Nene asked. "He's kind of stuck here because of us,
after all."

"He's busy building an alternate dimensional portal right now. He
thinks in another few days he should be all set. Strangely, he seems
to think this is all some sort of vacation. Something about only have
to save the world once this month." Sylia shook her head at that. "So
we are all agreed that we shall stay with Knight Sabers?"

"And why am I here?" Katherine asked coolly.

"To join us, of course."

"And what exactly are the Knight Sabers really?" the Genom exec
retorted, losing a bit of her cool.

"Right now, a counter-balance to the threat that megacorps pose to the
world and the threat that cyber intelligences pose to normal humans."
Sylia smiled slyly. "Of course, things might change. After all, the
Knight Sabers are no longer dedicated to just destroying Genom and
Quincy."

"So let me get this right, you want me to join a secret society that
everyone knows about to fix the world?"  Katherine asked
incredulously.

"Just the most glaring problems that we happen to be involved in."

"Why me?" she asked almost plaintively.

"Yeah! Why her?"  Nene asked, shooting a glare at Katherine.

"We all have things in our backgrounds that we regret. But you have
all proved remarkable and able to do what no one else can do. Be it
Largo, Lazarus or even Genom, you already are a force to be reckoned
with. The Knight Sabers needs someone like you, Katherine. And I
believe you have that potential." Sylia looked Katherine directly eye
to eye, unflinchingly.

"You are basing your desire for me off a possible future that will
never happen!"she snapped back.

"The past is the foundation for the future. Let the Knight Sabers be a
future that you can look forward to, rather than a future that will
destroy you."

Priss, Linna, Nene and Mackie all waited while they looked at the two
women. Finally, Katherine replied. "I should be committed for even
thinking of this. Fine, I'm in! But don't you even think about getting
me into one of those hardsuits."

"Ha! I be Sylia already has one designed just for your over-payed
posterior!" Priss called out in a ribald manner. "Say! I call for her
to be on my team next time we do paint ball."

"Hey!" Linna said in mock-exasperation. "What about me?"

"You can be on Sylia's team so she can sacrifice you for the win!" was
Priss's quick retort.

-- 
Arthur Hansen

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