fanfic_mausoleum_n_grill | Bubblegum Crusade (Ch. 8 of 24)

WELCOME TO BUBBLEGUM CRUSADE!

(Standard disclaimer here.) "It's Showtime." Gomez Addams

Chapter Eight

CRISIS -- IKARI O KOMETE HASHIRE
(CRISIS -- RUN WITH ANGER)

I silently rev up the darkness
While holding fast the crisis of my heart.

The intent look in my eyes means a night of passion.
I can't wait for morning, without doing anything.

Though I love someone, I cannot love wholeheartedly.
"Do it!" It's a lonely, crazy town again tonight.

"Burning Highway!" Klaxons howling in the night sky.
"Burning Highway!" Dreams burst into flame.
"Burning Highway!" Run with anger...until it shines.

The lights shine on without end.
I rush through them, having faith in this town.

How is it that you're so calm,
Even though you get by without doing anything?

Someone gets hurt, and someone laughs.
"Do it!" It's a lonely, crazy town again tonight.

"Burning Highway!" A crash beat that shakes the heart.
"Burning Highway!" Love bursts into flame.
"Burning Highway!" Run with anger...until it shines.

The stars drift along a screen made of the wind.
The paradise of a sleepless night.

"Burning Highway!" Klaxons howling in the night sky.
"Burning Highway!" Dreams burst into flame.
"Burning Highway!" Run with anger...until it shines.

Priss and the Replicants -- The bootleg tapes.

Mega-Tokyo, 13, October, 2034, 1:00 am.

Taki was jostled out of a restless sleep as Nene rolled over

and hit him again with her elbow. He grunt once in annoyance and

shifted closer to the edge of the bed out of her reach. Did I

just hear something? He wondered. Nene moved around again.

Must be that stuff with Priss that's upsetting her. Can't blame

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her. Taki opened his eyes and focused slowly on their alarm

clock. He faintly heard sirens screaming in the street as he

slowly wondered why the hands weren't moving.

The phone rang and Nene grabbed it before the second beep.

Taki wondered what was wrong with the clock.

"Hello, Sylia? Oh, it's great to see you again. How have

you been? Have you talked with Priss? Boy, have I..."

"Nene," interrupted Sylia. "I'm back and we got trouble."

Sylia paused as she noticed Taki. He turned and squinted at the

vid' phone. "Hmmm. Nene, I need you over here immediately. Got

it?"

Nene nodded and swallowed. The whispered hiss Sylia spoke

in sent a chill through her. That's unlike Sylia, thought Nene.

What's gotten her so mad. "Yea, I'll be right there."

Sylia clicked off.

Nene sat for a moment staring at the vid' phone. I've never

seen her like this. She reached for the light switch. Nene

quickly went to the window and open the mini-blinds. She saw

that her area of Mega-Tokyo was dark. The GENOM Tower stood on

the horizon and gleamed with lights, a cone of mankind's best

teck' thrusting towards the night sky. Nene started to fumble

around for some sweats.

"What's go'en on?"

"I'm going out."

"What? Why? That was Sylia on the phone, right?"

"Yea. She wants me over at her place."

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"Now?"

"Yes, now." Nene grabbed the keys for her scooter and

started down the hall. Taki got out of bed and trotted after

her.

"Would you tell me what's go'en on."

Nene paused in the semi-darkness, looked down at the floor,

afraid to face him. She hugged him and kissed him on the check.

"I love you, but I have to leave right now, and I can't tell you

why. Please, trust me on this, ok?"

"Ok," whispered Taki as she pulled away from him. Nene

slipped out their door. As she broke into a run down the stairs

which were lighted by the half-moon, she didn't notice the boomer

which started to follow her.

Taki stood for several minutes staring at their door and

wondered. He moved to their couch in the living room and gazed

out at Mega-Tokyo; light and dark, alive and silent, normal and

sirens.

They were on their sides, with him pressed into Linna's

back; his hand slowly caressed her stomach before he worked down

her right thigh.

Linna slowly yawned as he pushed her hair out of the way and

lightly kissed the nape of her neck, working his way up to her

cheek. Oh sweat contentment, Linna thought. It's been a long

time. Boy, my luck has totally changed. I'm a millionaire, I

didn't have to fake it tonight, and he likes to cuddle.

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"What's that blinking on the floor over there?"

Linna raised herself up on an elbow and gasped. Over by the

door way, there was a tiny light blinking on her bra. The

emergency micro-sized caller/homing beacons Sylia insisted they

attach to their bras was something Linna continued to wear even

when Sylia left for Germany. It helped Priss find Linna when she

was kidnapped by Vision in '33. This was the first time in

months she'd actually thought about it. Shit, shit, shit, she

thought.

Linna got up off of the bed and went over to her vid' phone,

a flashing light indicated that there was a recorded message.

She hit the button for Sylia's preset number and blanked the vid'

screen.

"Linna?"

"Yea, Sylia. What in the hell's go'en on?"

"It's bad Linna, real bad. I need you over here right now."

"Ok." Sylia broke the connection and Linna steeled herself.

Sylia's tone and the edge of anger in her voice made Linna

nervous.

"What's go'en on?"

"Don't know." Linna switched on a light and started to

dress. "I have to leave. Lock up when you go."

"You're leaving, just like that?"

"Yep. I had a good time tonight, but I've got to go."

"You have a ten second conversation with this gal and you

have to go just like that?"

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"Yep." She kissed him on the cheek. "Have a good night.

Call me." She headed out the door, down to the underground

parking garage. What in the hell is go'en on? Was all she could

ask herself.

Linna didn't notice the nondescript sedan pull away from the

curb after she drove by.

The guy sat on the bed, scratching his head for a moment

before flopping back down. "A good fuck but..." he mumbled,

slowly shaking his head.

"Ma'am, the AD Police have finally started their

counterattack on the boomers. They are at 246th and Cherry

Blossom St. Everything is proceeding as planned."

"Let's see it."

The GENOM Teck' keyed a sequence into his computer station.

The main multivision came alive, splitting into eight frames, one

for each boomer. Fazul stood leaning over a holo' table that

glowed in the semi-darkness with a detailed map of the Tinsel

City area. Eight red dots moved steadily down a main arterial

towards a building that was marked with an X. She glanced at the

running firefight the boomers were engaged in with the AD Police

and then back to the holo' table.

Fazul, two Teck's, and a C-class boomer were in one of the

central command areas inside the GENOM tower. As she gradually

escalated in position with GENOM this area became hers. She used

the Tecks assigned to the area for nothing other than assistants

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for her own assignments, transferring in several people she could

trust with the more sensitive data she handled, people she knew

would support her. Bouwer, Mason, and even the Tai-Pan opperated

in very similar ways as they rose in power.

The other Teck' was listening to the AD Police. "Ma'am, the

AD Police are setting up a line of defense at point 633, right in

front of the intended target. Their MAUs, number 3 and 14 are

getting into position as number 11 falls back in full retreat

from Cherry Blossom St. Number 4 and 8 are enroute. Choppers

with 8 more people in K-12 battle armor will hit the scene in

moments."

"Hmmm." Fazul tapped out a code on the holo' table. The

image changed from a flat map of the Tinsel City area to a

satellite enhanced view. The AD Police choppers dropped their K-

12s and headed in. The heavily armored D-series boomers turned

their attention away from the remains of MAU #11. Fazul watched

the best combat programming available operate flawlessly as the

boomers skillfully dodged the AD Police fire and returned direct

hits. "Has the fourth subject made it to the target building

yet?"

"Yes Ma'am," responded the first Teck'. He switched on a

bank of screens, each one showed some angle of The Silky Doll

building, a fashionable lingerie and dress shop in the heart of

Tinsel City. The Teck' backtracked one screen. Fazul watched a

sub-compact pull into an alley and into the underground parking

lot. "That's the last one. All accounted for."

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"Operational status of all tracking boomers?" Asked Fazul.

"Operational Ma'am," responded the second Teck'. "No

malfunctions."

"Keep them on a continuous feed into the OMS. What ever

happened to boomer Omega-T395 mustn't happen again."

"Yes Ma'am."

Fazul smiled, with a low inaudible chuckle in the back of

her throat. When Mason ran a show like this he had...only myself

and a boomer with him, thought Fazul. I do things with only

slight differences. Praise Allah, it's already been two years.

Such a passable strategy on such short notice. Send some boomers

through the city, fake their malfunction; they'll rip a path of

destruction straight through Tinsel City, right to Sylia's

doorstep. If the Knight Sabers don't appear we must have the

wrong women. This is something they will respond to. It's their

nature. Fazul scanned the active feeds from all the tracking

boomers, stationary cameras, and satellite view ordered on

Sylia's building. Every known exit, every square meter of the

building, and the sewer tunnels around her place were covered.

"Come out, come out, it's play time."

The first of the eight boomers moved into the main holo'

field on the table. It was three blocks from the Y split in

246th where Sylia's building sat. It finished demolishing a K-12

MBA with its laser and continued up the street, blasting the

surrounding buildings and parked cars. It cleared the way for

its counterparts.

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The Man swiftly skimmed over the rooftops adjacent to where

the howl of sirens, the thud of explosions, and the steady fire

of automatic weaponry filled the Mega-Tokyo night. The AD Police

were slowly losing. He heard the shrieking before the living

were blown and ripped apart by the fully functioning machines.

Shouting of orders, screams of frustration, anger, pain, and

swearing at God to do something filled the street under the howl

of war.

"MASTER FORBIDS." He said softly. The green/black

firestorm around him changed itself, at his command, so nothing

could detect him.

He landed on top of a building on 246Th and looked down the

street at the Silky Doll shop. There was no hint of anything

going on there. The boomers were steadily approaching. An

explosion from a MAU personnel transport lit the darkened

buildings and briefly cast light onto the man as he stood leaning

over the edge of the building for a better view. The explosion

lit a slow easy smile of familiarity, as his fingers dug into the

brick work of the building with frustration.

"MASTER," he cried to the heavens above, sending a burst of

green/black flame soaring into the night sky. "I DO NOT WISH TO

BE A SPECTATOR TONIGHT. I CAN STOP IT ALL WITH JUST A THOUGHT.

WHY DO YOU PREVENT ME? WHY DO YOU NOT LET ME COMPLETE MY MISSION

AND INTERVENE? HAVE I NOT SERVED WELL BEYOND EXPECTATION? GOD,

LET ME RELEASE MY POWER FOR THEIR SAKES."

HOUGH/CRUSADE-216

The Man dropped to his knees. His head bowed and eyes

closed as an answer came to him. "FORGIVE ME KNIGHT SABERS FOR

ONLY SHARING YOUR PAIN AND NOT HELPING YOU WITH THE BURDEN. MY

MASTER HAS JUDGED THE PATH THIS CONTINUUM WILL TAKE AND ONLY THAT

IS POSSIBLE NOW. YOU MUST DO..." He smiled. "...MOST OF IT ON

YOUR OWN. MY HANDS ARE CONDEMNED TO BE IDLE. GOD, I KNOW I HAVE

THE STRENGTH TO SIT IDLE, SO LET US SIT AND WATCH THE PLAY UPON

THE STAGE."

* * *

Sylia started to strip as she walked across the maintenance

bay to her hardsuit. It stood with its three counterparts,

polished, gleaming, ready, in the soft lighting the emergency

generators provided.

Sylia hurriedly tossed the last of her cloths into a pile

and stooped to disconnect the auxiliary power recharge line

running into the left foot of each suit. She grabbed a neatly

folded softsuit from a drawer set into the wall beside the

hardsuits and put it on.

The softsuit was a one piece body suit that was skin tight

and made from a combination of synthetic and natural materials,

including a natural rubber, which made it extremely shock

absorbant, heat resistant, and fire retardate. An intricate web

of fiber optics and sensors were sown directly into the matrix of

the suit. This interface between soft and hardsuit was essential

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so they could control the hardsuits like a natural second skin.

The softsuit was grey for the body, the limbs in red.

Sylia fastened the small velcro pieces at the nape of her

neck and stretched to make sure the suit was form fitting and

comfortable before backing into her hardsuit. Her hardsuit was

colored white with blue accents on the shoulder and hip joints.

Her main face shield was in blue, with the rest of her helmet in

white. In certain lighting, most of Sylia's hardsuit would be

awashed in blues.

When their hardsuits where open, they looked like someone

meticulously cut them in half by going down each leg, the upper

half of each arm, across the throat, down the middle of the

chest, and then opening it all up to reveal whatever treasure was

inside. Sylia backed into her suit, thrust her arms into their

housings, which activated the suit. It folded in upon her,

running through the standard cycle of adjustments as the

interface between the main computer and her body movements came

on-line. The suit was designed for her. Only another woman who

came close in size and shape could fit in her suit.

Sylia heard an explosion. She slide her blade from its

housing. It gleamed in the soft light. Bastards, she thought.

She only gave herself two weapons, the palmblaster and a

short broad sword. The palmblaster was just a interesting way to

say a laser on the underside of the hand. It's circuitry and

power leads ran on the underside of both arms, with the discharge

orifice located just under the palm area on either hand. Sylia

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put in a blade on the top of either arm, which slid out of its

housing to become a natural extension of Sylia's arm when in use.

Since Sylia was right handed, she mainly used that blade.

The check on her booster packs was next. Sylia had one on

both sides of her waist, a maneuverability jet, and the mains

which were on the ends of the space alloy wings on her back.

When they were off, the wings where rotated down onto the sides

of what looked like a small metal backpack built directly into

the suit. This was the main computer and power cells. Sylia's

addition of redundancies throughout their suits minimized the

backpack as a major target. The computer lock for her weapons

was in the helmet along with the targeting scope. In full battle

mode, a link was established between her perceptions and the

suit's movements. If the left palm-blaster was active and Sylia

looked left, then the left arm of her suit would already be

tracking to the left. Her arm movements would override this sub-

program.

The main door into the work area was thrown open as Priss

arrived. She was only breathing a little bit harder from the jog

up seven flights of stairs. Priss immediately started to strip

as she crossed to Sylia. "It's a war out there. You got back

just in time." The thud of explosions was coming closer and

becoming more frequent.

"I know. This is all GENOM's doing. They're mad at me so

they sent a squad of boomers through the town, straight at me.

Casual elimination of an irritation, with no finger pointing at

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them, because their irritant was a casualty in an unfortunate

accident." She tossed Priss a softsuit.

"GENOM huh? It's been awhile. Are you sure they're mad at

you or are they coming after us?" Sylia fastened up Priss's

softsuit and Priss told Sylia about Leon as she got into her

hardsuit.

"Damn it, this is most disturbing. Well Priss, they have

two reasons to be mad at me. While I was in Germany, I stole a

prototype 35-S sexaroid from them. I combined her programming

with the Haynes AI and what's left of my father's original

programing. Crystal became fully sentient barely six weeks after

she came on-line."

Priss whistled in astonishment. "And they're mad at you for

that? Breaking the GENOM seal on the other race is hardly worth

getting mad about." Priss started to laugh.

"Murderous yes, but never mad; that's not good business and

the Tai-Pan knows it."

The door opened as a series of explosions rattled the

building. They heard constant automatic fire. Nene rushed in.

"Oh Sylia, it's so good to have you back." She stopped changing

to hugged Sylia. "We're really needed out there tonight."

"Yes, we've been absent to long."

Priss started her check. Her hardsuit was mainly blue with

the chest area and hip joints in grey. She had accent lines of

red around her thighs, shoulders, and faceplate. During Sylia's

absence, Priss wandered by one day with some red paint and

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painted a red strip down the outside of her legs. Priss couldn't

remember where she read that the red strip down Han Solo's pants

was supposed to represent a blood strip, his first kill in

combat, earned very young of course. When Priss was in her pre-

teens, before her street pack days, when she had a terrible crush

on the dashing scoundrel. That was before she found out what it

was really like to be wanted by the law. Priss thought the touch

was symbolically important and wondered when she did it if she

should've done the same with Sylia's suit, but decided to wait

and ask her about it.

Priss's heaviest piece of weaponry was the spike cannon.

It hung down on the right side of her back when she had it, she

didn't carry it all the time, and would flip up over her shoulder

into firing position. The spikes were designed to penetrate

boomer armor and detonate inside, hopefully causing enough damage

to make the boomer self destruct from internal damage. Most of

every battle the Knight Sabers ever had with boomers was getting

past the armor to the inside where the boomers could easily be

destroyed. A smaller version of the spike cannon was built into

the sides of her wrist armor on her left hand. On her right, a

knuckleblaster. Instead of the circuitry and power leads on the

bottom of the arm, like on Sylia's, her's ran along the top where

they were discharged through the knuckle area. Sylia designed

this to allow for a slightly different wave pattern the laser

formed. It was also a difference in personality that promoted

this alteration. With a knuckleblaster, Priss could get the

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emotional and psychological satisfaction of throwing a laser

blast, instead of just delivering it from the palm area. On the

bottom of each wrist was were Priss had a viciously pointed,

cutting and stabbing weapon. In battle, Priss would sometimes

feel as though she was back in the pack, settle'en things with

knives. Her main thruster pack was on the bottom of her

backpack, with maneuverability jets on the back of her thighs.

Sylia's building was being rocked by laser blasts as Linna

came in. Glass shattered; they could make out the screams from

the AD Police; the sound of choppers came and went. One crashed

into the end of Sylia's building.

"Oh Linna, I'm glad you made it," called Sylia.

"Welcome back. Hell of a time to drop back in. The AD

Police were right outside when I got here," said Linna. "It

looked like they were getting pounded." Sylia's building

vibrated from the blasts and a fire started at the opposite end

of the hanger, down by the Knightwing and its lift.

Sylia explained about Crystal and Priss told them about

Leon.

"GENOM's not going to pay for this unless someone makes

them," said Linna as she started to get into her hardsuit. "I

heard on the TV coming over here that they've labeled the whole

thing as an accident. Monetary claims are nothing to them.

They're just doing what ever the hell they want to, throwing life

away like it was garbage."

"That's the GENOM way," said Sylia. "GENOM is a respectable

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company and wouldn't stoop to outright destruction of their

enemies. So they have to use rampaging boomers to get me in an

unfortunate cross fire. From the news viewpoint this building is

just in the way of berserk boomers and not the target of

disciplinary actions."

Nene giggled softly as she put on her helmet and started her

check. Her fingers lightly, eagerly zipped over her controls.

She felt the first flush of exhilaration wash over herself.

Nene's hardsuit was red with light pink legs, blue accents

around her neck and on the bottom of her faceplate. The groin

and the bottom of her chest plate were white, with white around

the blue area on her faceplate.

Nene's hardsuit was the most complex of the four. She

carried a more powerful computer and all their interfacing

equipment. In her helmet, on the top, two sensor apparatus could

slide out of their housing when she needed detailed sensor

readings. To aid this, her back pack had four outboard wings of

complex interfacing/sensory equipment. On the top of the

backpack was a housing for Nene's main weapon. Two disks slide

up from this housing to fire a particle beam weapon over her

shoulders; she also had a small laser, built along the line for

Priss's smaller spike weapon, on both sides of her wrists. On

the bottom of her back pack was the main thruster, with

maneuverability jets on her hips. The last thing she carried was

interfacing cables she could shoot out from her right fore-arm.

It was through these that she could interface with computers or

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boomers, either receiving or sending data. Nene could literally

take a boomer over with these cables, if she had enough time;

normally she would only have the time to just order the boomer to

self destruct by overriding a safety feature on one of its

weapons, or something similar.

Linna's hardsuit was mainly green with the chest area in

grey, red accents at the hip and end shoulder joints, and a red

strip around each thigh. Her faceplate was gold. She had a

knuckleblaster on the right hand. Her knife weapons were flat

sharp daggers that slid out into her palms. From there, she

could launch them at a target. These daggers would trail out a

return line to Linna's hardsuit, and she could send a massive

overloading jolt of electricity through them. The boomers would

be destroyed if the dagger properly penetrated the boomer armor

and she got enough time to fry them. Linna also had two ribbons

of finely honed space industrial steel hanging down from the back

of her helmet; they could slice through almost anything.

"Come on," said Sylia. Linna was the last to put on her

helmet as Priss flew up two stories to a hatchway on the ceiling

of the two tiered hanger. Priss positioned herself on the rung

ladder while she turned a crank to open the hatch. Sylia, Nene,

Linna, and then Priss emerged into the howling Mega-Tokyo night.

They were greeted with a laser blast which slammed into one

of the six landing guide posts. The metal groaned and crumpled,

sending the post toppling from the raised landing platform to the

roof where they were. Priss side stepped it easily.

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Sylia and the others moved to the edge of the steel and

glass canyon that glowed with fire. They looked down on the

carnage, the twisting shadows of war, the frantic efforts the

humans waged against the machines. They looked down at what

GENOM unleashed.

Sylia's right blade slide from its sheath and she pointed

down there, were the humans lost their lives in a senseless,

meaningless, fruitless battle, before she roared: "Knight

Sabers, Go!"

* * *

The Man looked down on the scene and slowly shook his head.

He focused on a woman in a K-12. The machine around her was an

unrecognizable mess of twisted metal, she was unmercifully still

conscious. She didn't know that she was crying softly, the pain

from her broken body made her want to scream, but she couldn't.

She could feel her life draining away; all she could hear was the

sounds of desperate combat. The Man watched her blood flow out

through the twisted metal, it pooled, and trickled through a

grating and down into the sewer. He silently watched her leave

this life behind......

Three of the AD Police MAUs were in shattered ruins as the

boomers came closer to their target. The remaining two MAUs were

screaming desperately for the army, for reinforcements, for

anything. Two of the eight boomers were destroyed. The rest

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showed signs of slowing down; their three meter tall frames were

covered with blast marks, pocketed with depressions. One had

lost it's laser bazooka right arm, another it's 50mm machine gun

left arm.

Two more choppers arrived with four more people in K-12

MBAs. The boomers took notice and aimed their lasers up at the

choppers. The pilots managed to avoid several blasts, one of

which slammed into a landing guide post on the top of Sylia's

building. But with five boomers firing continuously with

computer precise aim, the two choppers were blown apart as they

tried to retreat. The K-12s descended, blasting away. The

boomers turned their attention to them and immediately two K-12s

were turned into scrap.

The Man smiled as he sat on the burning wreckage of a

chopper that crashed on the building he'd been watching from. He

heard the cry over the din of battle.

"Knight Sabers, Go!"

They dropped from the top of the building like birds of prey

to the kill, swift and deadly, each with a scream of vengeance,

of outrage as they split up and selected a target to vent their

anger on.

Priss's spike cannon came up, drilling three spikes directly

into the chest area of her boomer. Electricity flared from the

wounds as Priss dropped in and nailed it to the head. It was

knocked to the ground. Priss only touched earth long enough to

do a flip and was right by the boomers head. She nailed it with

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her knuckleblaster. Priss backed off and up before nailing a

spike into the head and chest. The boomer thrashed about, firing

wildly, and finaly exploded.

Sylia dropped towards her boomer, palmblasters firing, doing

some damage to it. It aimed at her, and she dodge under its

fire. She flipped up and landed directly on the boomers

shoulder, firing away at it's head. It tried to grab ahold of

her and throw her off. Sylia felt this coming and slipped down

its back, raking her blade along its back. She landed and thrust

it through the boomer, up to her hand. The boomer turned with

her blade in it, firing indiscriminately. Sylia withdrew the

blade, and ducked under the boomer's fire. She came up strong

with concentrated fire to its mid-section. It reached out and

managed to grab ahold of her left arm. The right blade flashed

and the boomer arm was separated at the shoulder joint. The

boomer was starting to wobble as Sylia drove her blade deep into

its chest. She ripped a section loose as the blade came out and

then pelted that area with laser fire. The boomer exploded from

within as Sylia soared upward.

Nene soared down and saw a boomer that was still engaged

with a K-12, who was slowly losing. She powered up her main

weapons and flew down to help him. She streaked along the

ground, coming up from behind the officer, who was grappling with

the boomer, and soared up from behind to nail the boomer. Her

weapons discharged over her shoulders and struck the boomer in

the upper chest, ripping straight through the armor and out the

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back side. This exploded the power cells and a wave of shrapnel

was discharged in every direction. The K-12 was shredded as Nene

soared up, her hardsuit took the barrage until a shard of metal

happened to hit a seam at just the right angle. Nene gasped and

looked down at the piece of metal protruding from her groin/leg

seam. She crashed to the ground in shock.

Two daggers slipped out of their housings and into Linna's

hands. She came down, dodging several laser blasts and launched

the daggers. One went in at an odd angle and glanced off of the

boomer. The other dug in and popped right back out as Linna

dodged another blast. They reeled in as she came up close,

drilled her knuckleblaster to its throat area and whipped her

head around as she flipped over it. The right arm was cleanly

sliced off by her ribbons. It turned to fire its machine gun at

her. She dodged and launched her left dagger into the gash were

its arm had been. The boomer crackled with electricity before it

exploded.

The remaining two boomers received a mission accomplished

squirt into their CPUs and broke off their attack. One boomer

dropped an officer in a K-12 right before it could finish her.

The boomers activated their thruster packs, turned, and left. An

awkward, pain filled silence descended on 246th. It was over.

Sylia jetted sideways and landed in an expanding pool of

Nene's blood which seeped out around the piece of metal. "After

those two," shouted Sylia as Priss and Linna landed beside her.

"Scrap'em."

HOUGH/CRUSADE-228

Priss nodded and they took off.

Sylia stooped down beside Nene. "It's going to be ok, ok."

Her metal incased fingers gently wiped away some of the blood so

she could get a better look. "Come on, come on, it just looks

like a flesh wound. I'm going to lift you now." Sylia slowly

got her arms under Nene and activated her thrusters. She heard

Nene stifle a whimper as they rose.

"You're going to be fine. You're going to be fine. Do'en

good, half way there." Sylia glanced around at the few remaining

AD Police officers as they rose towards her building. There was

no cheering now that it was over, just the silence of the dead

mixing with the orders from the MAU chiefs as they stated to

assess what was left. The roar of flames was a constant backdrop

as sirens started to howl. The firefighters were just now

coming, as were the ambulances, and the coroner's people.

As Sylia listened to the slow intermittent sobbing, she

happened to glance off to the left and let out a gasp. She saw

the Man surrounded by green/black fire that melted into the reds

and oranges of the inferno on the top of a building. Sylia

pulled up to stare at him. He nodded once and she heard the

words "GOOD JOB" echo in her helmet. The green/black flame

danced around him until he was gone from her sight, swallowed by

the ordinary flames. What in the hell did I just see? Sylia

asked herself as she hovered for a moment.

Sylia shook her head to refocus her thoughts then swooped up

to the open hatchway before any of the approaching AD Police or

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fire choppers got close enough to notice them.

When Priss and Linna came within range of the two boomers,

they where flying low down a stretch of highway 19. It was a

straight line towards the water front, where several GENOM

industrial parks and the GENOM construction site at the destroyed

GPCC was located.

Priss and Linna separated as they dodged around the late

night traffic. Linna got close to the edge, chose her spot,

veered out between the unused support arches for an unconstructed

next level, and got into the open space beside the highway. She

shot ahead. Priss maneuvered around another truck and continued

to gain as she got into a clear area.

Two more AD Police gun ships closed and started to pelt the

boomers with their mini guns. Linna added to the incoming fire

and Priss closed. She moved her spike gun into position and took

careful aim before she drilled a spike straight into the flare of

a boomer booster pack. Priss veered off as the boomer instantly

exploded.

The last boomer turned and drove a laser beam straight

through one chopper, maneuvering up, and straight into an

overhead steel support arch for the nonexistent next level. It

was crudely sliced in half.

Linna came to a stop by the smoking top half of the boomer.

"It's over," she said as Priss joined her.

"Until GENOM finds out that Sylia wasn't hurt tonight. It's

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like Mason was back with GENOM. The same kind of shit."

"But it's on a larger scale. Mason only did two boomers

that one time in '32, and that was just to test them, not to get

anybody."

"Are you forgetting they tore through Sylia's place that

time to? GENOM's toying with us. If they wanted our hides, we'd

be in the Tai-Pan's trophy case by now."

"I wonder how many they killed this time, shit. It's going

to be alot higher." Linna sighed. "I hate to think that we're

actually dealing with someone worse that Mason this time." They

took off and flew by the hovering chopper which surveyed the

burning wreckage of a chopper on the top level of the highway.

"I don't know. It could be Largo."

"Largo?" Linna was surprised. "You think he's still

alive?"

"Oh come on Linna. He fell off of GENOM Tower and survived

that. Sylia pelting him with laser fire isn't go'en to get rid

of him. That fucker hates us humans."

"Yea, and he always used pawns against us at first. Illegal

Army, D-series boomers. Those boomers were D-series."

"Yea," said Priss. "He's probably been plotting his next

brilliant revenge since the micron after the boring machine

stopped and the fusion reactor didn't go boom."

"If this is true, then before to long we'll be facing him

again. That's his pattern. In his arrogance he himself has to

defeat us." Linna was silent for awhile as they headed back to

HOUGH/CRUSADE-231

Sylia's place, forcing the maximum thrust out of their packs.

"Priss?"

"Hmmm?"

"By the way, I was at the Tecknocropolis this evening. Did

you know they were playing your stuff?"

"What?"

"Yea, they played KONYA WA HURRICANE. The crowd loved it."

"Some fucker's bootlegged me. If I find out who..." Priss

wound up her right fist like she was going to fire into a passing

building, but caught herself. "Fuck, what a night."

They continued on in silence even as they came down to

street level several blocks from Sylia's building. People gave

them a wide birth as others started to gather around.

"It's the Knight Sabers," someone shouted.

Priss tore open a manhole cover from the sidewalk. Linna

dropped through first and Priss followed; the manhole cover

clanked into place behind her.

Sylia dropped down into her building and slowed. She

activated her night vision and carefully made her way through the

twisted I beam support steel and electrical cables hanging from

severed runs. She noticed that the halon fire extinguishing

system had discharged, but was clear now. Nene was quiet as

Sylia tried not to jar her to hard as they landed.

"Nene? Nene? Speak to me. You in there?"

"Yea. It hurts."

HOUGH/CRUSADE-232

"Just a few more minutes Nene. The pain killers are

coming."

Sylia set her down on the edge of a debris covered table,

wiping most of it away with one sweep of her blade, and gently

moved Nene into the middle. Nene let out a small moan, but

squelched it.

Sylia moved over to a storage locker and pried it open; it

took a minute to free the portable battery powered light source.

As the light flared, she took off her helmet and gently removed

Nene's. Nene's face was streaked with tears flowing into the

padding at her neck. Sylia reached under a soaking wet pad on

the left side of Nene's neck and hit the emergency release

button. Immediately the hardsuit went off line; the suit

integrity was compromised and the power cells were sealed off.

Sylia removed the chest plate, tossing it aside before

gently removing the groin piece and the forward right thigh.

They clanked together on the floor.

"Ok here, lie still."

Sylia sliced Nene's softsuit open, down the thigh, up her

side, and across the lower abdomen. She pulled the suit back to

get a better look at the shard imbedded in the hip/groin area.

"H..how..is it."

"You missed getting fucked by that much."

This brought a trace of a smile to Nene as Sylia got out a

hypo' gun from the top drawer under the table. She slapped in a

cartridge of amnestic and pumped Nene five times around the

HOUGH/CRUSADE-233

shard. Nene winced before she began to relax as the nerves went

dead.

"You're really lucky. It missed the main artery. It's

mainly jammed in here underneath the skin. Painfull but not that

serious." Nene further relaxed and began to breath easier.

Sylia took a moment to get out of her hardsuit before moving some

debris to get at the main medical storage unit. She tossed a

liter of Nene's frozen blood into a warmer and set up a portable

imager. A quick scan showed that Sylia called it right. The

shard penetrated just in underneath the skin, pressing against

the muscle and missing the vital organs and blood artery. After

taking off the right arm piece of Nene's hardsuit Sylia started

the transfusion and took out a laser scalpel. With quick fluid

movements, she cut away a little bit of the skin, grabbed the

shard with a pair of pincers, pulled it out, and tossed the

pincers over her shoulder.

Nene gasped and relaxed.

A couple of quick sutures and a pressure bandage later,

Sylia let out a sigh of relief. She retrieved the shard and held

it before Nene's eyes.

"You're prize, Madame." Sylia smiled as Nene giggled

faintly.

"Thank you Sylia, thank you so much."

Sylia took off her gloves and stroked Nene's forehead and

teased her fingers through red hair.

Nene pushed her left arm out of the encompassing remains of

HOUGH/CRUSADE-234

her hardsuit and drew Sylia closer, into a weak hug. "I...I've

never been so scared. I failed the team, you."

Sylia shushed her as she held her close. "It's not your

fault. You didn't fail me. We all know what price we must pay.

There's no fault to place here. Rest, rest and get better Nene.

We're going to need you. I doubt that this is over. Rest,

rest."

Sylia checked the bandage; the bleeding had slowed to a

trickle. She gave her a shot of penicillin. The liter of blood

only had a fifth left in it. Sylia removed that and covered Nene

up with an army issue blanket.

"You stay put and rest. I'll be right back. Have to go

check on things."

Nene looked at the ceiling two storied up, at the shadows

twisting through the partially collapsed ceiling and walls. She

fought the growing sleepiness as she listened to Sylia make her

way through the rubble, a curse coming every now and then. Nene

didn't move. She was still lying in the back half of her form

fitting hardsuit which made a very comfortable place to lay.

As she dozed off, she heard Priss.

"How is she?"

"She'll be fine. How'd it go?"

"Tore'em up," responded Linna. "We also found a spy camera

in the sewer coming in. They're on to us."

"Fuckers," spat Sylia. "This was all to get me, maybe even

to take on the Knight Sabers, to see if we still had it. I'm

HOUGH/CRUSADE-235

going to make GENOM pay for this bloody night."

"Blood for blood," said Priss.