Left field Productions Presents
Free Fall
A Bubblegum Crisis 2032 Fan-fiction Written By Darkranger12 and Shanejayell
Chapter One
Dan blinked furiously, trying to get rid of the spots out of his eyes. He staggered abit out of the alley way, stumbled through a throng of people and nearly stepped into the busy street when someone yanked him back. Dan urked then yelped when he was whriled around in the middle of the sidewalk. He blinked abit, then winced when the person slapped his cheek. "Snap out of it! Are you trying to get killed!?"
Dan blinked blinked at the figure then grunted. She had silver hair pulled into a ponytail and was dressed in casual clothes. "Tennyo?!"
"Who else," Tennyo stated with slight smirk then asked seriously. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"Nah, I'm fine," Dan shook his head then frowned a bit. "But why were we in alley way?"
"Never mind that..." Tennyo frowned as she glanced about, taking everything in. there were tall buildings all around them. All the signs were in Japanese and at least a few of the buildings had what appeared to be giant LCD screens on them.
"What the fuck?" Dan blinke "I think we're not in Kansas Toto."
"It seems we're not in academy city...that's for sure." Tennyo noted.
"Right..." Dan nodded then frowned a bit. He looked troubled and wondered if he should speak up.
"What?" Tennyo had to ask.
"You know how you said anime rots my brain? It may have happened." Dan looked sheepish.
"Do tell..." Tennyo made an odd face.
"This looks a LOT like Bubblegum Crisis..." Dan noted.
"Oh please..." Tennyo rolled her eyes.
"That is a boomer, Tennyo,"" Dan pointed at it. Moments later a six wheeled POLICE APC rolled by "...and that was an AD Police Van. Seriously, Tennyo. I think we're in a parallel world where Bubblegum Crisis exists."
"Okay. Say it is..." Tennyo noted then leaned in. "Question is...which version."
"Hopefully not the latter one, or Sylia will be hitting on you." Dan sighed.
"That's not the worst fate..." Tennyo shook her head.
"All right, we need more information," Dan thought aloud, "let's find a library."
"There's a phone kiosk over there, let's see if we can call up a map first." Tennyo noted.
"We can do that too..." Dan nodded as he followed her over to the Kiosk. She tabbed a few buttons and called up a map of a city that was sort of familiar to her. It LOOKED like the tokyo that she knew but it had a big gouge in it and several artifical islands on its shore line.
"Mega...Tokyo?" Tennyo noted.
"Oh crap," Dan breathed out. "There seems to be a large island in the center of the bay too."
"And this district here..Genom City?" Tennyo frowned when she pointed at a section of the city.
"WHAT?!" Dan blinked, thought a bit then frowned as he gazed at the section of the city. "This is bad. Very bad. What's the date?"
"April 2nd...2036?" Tennyo blinked.
Dan blinked then leaned against the kiosk wall. He shook his head, with his brows furrowed in confusion. "Damn it...all that I know is up to 2034..."
"Hmmm..." Tennyo murmured then smiled a very thin and long smile at him. "...and if it was earlier...would you have been the brave hero?"
"Shut up..." Dan grumbled rolling his eyes.
"Um...excuse me?" A woman with a raspy yet high voice piped up. Both turned, taking in the youngish looking woman in a crisp military style uniform. She was short had wavy red hair and big green eyes.
'Oh crap! Its Romanova...' Dan nearly lost it. 'I hope she didn't hear that.'
"Could you two please move on..." She said apologetically to both Dan and Tennyo. "We had a report of a public disturbance. Someone thought you were impersonating ADP officers, but I can see it's just cosplay."
Both Dan and Tennyo looked down then grunted when they saw that both were wearing their anti-skill light tactical armor.
"Still, it's not the best thing to wear out in public," Nene added then smiled. "So if you two wouldn't mind..."
"We'll get changed as soon as possible, officer," Dan promised as Tennyo looked up the nearest library.
"Good..." Nene Romanova nodded.
"Now if you'll excuse us..." Dan nodded and the pair walked off. Nene watched them go, frowning thoughtfully. Nene walked back to her patrol car then picked up a phone sitting in a cradle.
"Leon are you there..." Nene asked.
"Go ahead Nene-chan," Leon McNichol's gruff voice replied. "Did you catch the guys in riot gear?"
"Well...no...something seems...off." Nene replied, thought, then exclaimed. "OH! I remember now! They were dressed up from that show with the Lightning girl! They had riot gear too!"
"You still watch that stuff?" Leon chuckled.
"Shut up Leon-poo." Nene grumbled then asked "Should I keep an eye out for them?"
"Well, they are probably harmless nuts..." Leon noted.
"I'll set the survelance around them to auto-monitoring. If they do something really strange, we'll know."
"Right..." Leon agreed.
Nene hung up, glanced about, then accessed the local camera feed on her device. She searched around for her targets then found them.
"Gotcha...now to see what they're up too." Nene noted, pocketed the device then trotted after them. Meanwhile, Dan and Tennyo entered the 2nd metropolitian library with duffel bags in hand. The lobby was spacious and they were surrounded with boks. Tennyo noted how distracted Dan was and grabbed his hand...not wanting him to make a sceen.
"Com one, let's find a public access terminal," Tennyo sighed, leading him into the interior of the building.
"Right," Dan nodded.
The pair made there way through the building until they found a row of cubicles containing containing what appeared to be Mac Pro stations
"Ew," Tennyo made a face.
"Eh they're not that bad," Dan shrugged then suggested to his friend. "Let's log in on one.
"Right," Tennyo said as she hit the space bar to 'wake up' the PC. Thankfully the browser was recent-ish.
"Oooh Firefox. Not bad." Dan noted.
"Nevermind that..." Tennyo shook her head. "What should I be looking for?"
"Do a search on major corporations and Public Services," Dan murmured as he sat next to her. "Filter out the banks and the like. All I'm interested in right now is to know who the major players are."
"You want a search on all of the major corporations?" Tennyo arched an eyebrow.
"Your Right..." Dan conceded then sighed. Just look for the major multinationals instead okay?"
"Do you want me to look through ALL of the public services? Or just the emergency services, Dan?" Tennyo teased.
"Just the emergency services," Dan rolled his eyes.
"Right," Tennyo nodded, typed it in then waited for the search results to come back. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm gonna scan the headlines a bit on the computer next to yours." Dan shrugged then hummed. "Maybe I'll find something useful."
""Right," Tennyo agreed as she used google to start searching. The silver haired woman frowned thoughtfully as she sifted through the hits, pulling up what could be useful while ignoring those that weren't. At first she wasn't sure about Dan's assumption, but now, as she searched she had a sinking feeling that he might be right. She called up a story about Genom City read through it then smirked a bit.
'To a point, that is,' Tennyo thought then wondered if she should tease him about it.
Meanwhile Dan paged through article after article, matching up information that he knew from the anime series. "Wiz Laboratory destroyed in 2023...Earthquake in 2025. Massive rebuilding effort soon after. Biomechanoids going berserk shortly there after. AD Police is formed...the vigilante group knight sabers appear around in 2031..."
Tennyo frowned listening in as she paged through a few hits from google.
"This place is insane..." Tennyo muttered and shook her head. "There are four major corporations fighting for territory. It must be a powder keg out there."
"Oh?" Dan blinked and looked at her searches. "GENOM, Gullf and Bradley, SEARRS...Archangel...what the hell?"
"I take it they weren't a part of the canon?" Tennyo whispered.
"Well the first two. Guess things have progressed?" Dan shrugged.
"Probably so..." Tennyo nodded then nudged him. "Anything else you remember..."
"Still searching," Dan shrugged then suggested to Tennyo. "Maybe we should do a people search too?"
"Who are you looking for..." Tennyo asked.
"Well, the leads obviously. And there are other characters who could be important. Dan noted.
"All right...but what are you going to do with this knowledge?" Tennyo asked.
"Dunno yet...still need time to think," Dan sighed.
"Well whatever it is...just promise me one thing..." Tennyo mused.
"What?" Dan blinked.
"Don't keep me out of the loop...talk to me...okay?" Tennyo gazed evenly at him. "Also if someone says Get in the Robot...you answer NO."
"Right right..." Dan nodded, grabbed a piece of scrap paper, scribbled a few names down and passed it over to her. "Could you look these names up please?"
"Oh sure, I'm your secretary now.." Tennyo rolled her eyes then glanced at his screen. "...mad car chase...vampire incidents...orbital strikes around the world...
Vision..."
Dan frowned as he looked at the article from January 1st 2034AD. "She moved to Japan to become an idol? Asagiri of the Replicants hasn't been seen for months."
"Did something happen?" Tennyo whispered.
"Possibly..." Dan nodded then glanced through a few more articles then looked at the photo of the knight sabers. He blinked then frowned. "Wait a minute...there are five of them now? Huh. Is this a dsivergent timeline or..?"
"Its possible.." Tennyo nodded then.
Dan clicked on a few more images, them blinked as she saw an image of what appeared to be the ruins of a spaceship...buried half way into the lunar surface...it was also VERY familiar to him too. "Oh...Oh no."
"What...did they find the Macross?" Tennyo teased.
"It's not THAT bad...but it is worrisome." Dan rolled his eyes. Meanwhile, in a luxurious office a computer logged the searches, and flags went up. At the same time, a signal went out to a portable data unit. Nene blinked as her device chimed.
"What the...the library? She called up the image then yelped. "Those to again?!"!"
Nene frowned then hummed as she poured over the searches that they made. "Why would they be looking for information on us?"
Within the luxurious offce, Sylia Stingray, already dressed, frowned thoughtfully at the data on the flatscreen monitor. It concerned her greatly that someone or something was making an extensive search on herself and her team mates.
"This is very troubling, very troubling indeed," Sylia noted as she sat at her desk. As she gazed at the screen, the door on the left clacked open. Priss Asagiri stepped out in a robe, toweling off her hair. She gazed fondly at Sylia, noting to herself how close they have gotten over the years, then frowned when she saw the look of grave concern on Sylia's face.
"Is something wrong Sylia?" Priss wondered as she stepped up to the desk.
"Definitely," Sylia sighed then gestured to the hits on her screen. "Someone's looking into us, Priss."
"Could it be another reporter?" Priss asked.
"There's too much inside information," Sylia noted, still frowning "search strings on all of us, and several KS related incidents."
"Hmmm..." Priss mused then noted. "I guess its too dangerous to send one of us out to check on them." She glanced at the data some more and had an idea. "But look, they didn't search for Reika Chang," Priss pointed out, "not by name anyway. Why not ask her to shadow them, see what they're up to?"
Sylia sat back. "That's not a bad idea," she conceded
"Question is...who are we looking for?" Priss asked then blinked when Nene sent an encripted email to Sylia. "Oh its Nene..."
Sylia opened the encrypted mail and sat back when she saw Dan and Tennyo at the computer. Priss blinked then grinned. "Gotcha...but why at second metropolitan library?"
"Well, they might think it's harder to trace them from a public place..." Sylia noted then sent the photo and the location to Reika with instructions to tail the pair.
After that she called up a facial recognition program. "I'll see if these two match what we have on file."
"Won't that take a while?" Priss asked.
"Yes..." Sylia nodded then pulled her close. "But I think I know how to spend the time."
"Do tell..." Priss grinned then moaned as Sylia lips carressed her kneck. "Ah...Sylia."
Meanwhile...
"So what now?" Tennyo asked Dan as she stretched her arms.
Dan idly tapped a finger on the mouse, seemingly lost in thought as he gazed at the reports on his monitor. He then sat back in his seat and looked to Tennyo. "I say we lay low for a while...find a job or two...for now."
"Its a start..." Tennyo nodded thoughtfully then glanced at him. "lets do a search for job openings. Maybe we'll find something."
"Where are you gonna look?" Dan asked.
"Might try a resturant close by," Tennyo shrugged.
"Good idea," Dan nodded then hummed thoughtfully "There are a few openings for automotive mechanics here too. Want to try these places?"
"Of course..." Tennyo nodded. The pair copied the addresses down, closed their searches and quickly and quietly exitted the library. They traveled around Tinsel City trying to apply for jobs but the pair soon realized a few flaws in their plan.
"What's your work history like..." A grim looking man asked as he stood at a desk of an auto repair shop on the outskirts of Tinsel city.
"Work history...?" Dan blinked thought then scratched his head. "...well...uhm...you see..."
"Yeah right, not interested," The grim man with a ponytail shook his head. He waved him away with a sweeping gesture "Get out of here will ya."
"R-Right sorry to bother you," Dan nodded and quickly left the office. He padded out of the repair shop looking dejected and frustrated at the same time. "Damn it..."
"What?" Tennyo asked him. "Did you expect it to be easy?"
"...a little," Dan sighed.
"This may be a fictional world from our perspective, but it's real to them. So no, it's gonna be like real life for us too..." Tennyo noted.
"Right..." Dan nodded then asked her. "What are we gonna do?"
"Keep applying. If someone actually lets you work on a car, you can prove you can do it," Tennyo noted
"So we should try old fashioned garages..." Dan mused. Moments later, there was a cry of help. Normally people would call the police, but the pair, as members of anti-skill, dashed off without a second thought.
They hurried down the street, heading towards the the source of the sound, then charged into an alleyway. Tennyo grunted when she saw a pair of mugger trying rob a defenseless old man. The old man had receding white hair and a white mustache and was wearing a tan jump suit. Dan, meanwhile, grunted when he recognized the old man almost immediately. 'Dr Raven?!'
"Take care of the old man!" Tennyo charged the young men, "I got this!"
"What?" Dan blinked as Tennyo rushed in. She slammed a hand palm out into one guys jaw, causing the guy to stagger. His partner let the old man go and swipped at Tennyo.
"We'd better get clear, sir," Dan told him as he helped Dr. Raven up.
"THanks," Raven grunted. He then looked over at Tennyo as she dodged their attacks, parried a few strikes then slammed a hand into one of the muggers faces
"Wow." Raven blinked.
Dan winched when he heard what sounded like a bone fracturing and tugged the old man away. "Come on, sir.. it's likely to get unpleasant to watch."
"Of course..." Raven nodded and the pair made their way out of the alleyway into the darkened street. Dan winced when he heard a few cracks, crunches, and a few sickening sounding moans.
Tennyo trotted after then a few moments later. "I needed that."
"Your a good fighter..." Raven noted, still leaning on Dan for support.
"I try. Are you hurt, sir?" Tennyo asked solicitously.
"Banged me up some," Raven admitted. "Could you help me along?"
"Of course..." Dan nodded.
Tennyo looked at Dan curiously, then nodded. "We're glad to help," she agreed.
"Whats your names by the way?" The old man asked.
"I'm Tennyo...Tennyo Masaki." Tennyo nodded then gestured to Dan. "His name is Dan Wisner. He's...a friend of mine. Who are you sir?"
"Doctor Raven.| the old man introduced himself, "I run a garage not far from here."
Tennyo glanced at Dan then at Raven then nodded.
"We'll get you there," she agreed.
"You kids new in town?" Raven asked
"How did you know?" Dan asked.
"Most people other than cops woulda walked right by." Raven admitted.
"Well we are kind of new..." Dan noted.
"Just off the boat, so to speak," Tennyo said, sweat dropping a bit. "We've been looking around for a job for a while now and we're really beat
"Hm, well, you can rest up for a bit at my garage," The older man noted gruffly.
"Thank you sir..." Tennyo nodded.
****A short time later****
"Got grease under your fingernails and cuts on your hands," Raven noted at the garage, having gotten the kids some tea. "So, Mr Wisner, do you work on cars alot?"
"Well, when my friends aren't bugging me," Dan admitted rueully
"Hmm...lets see what you can do." Raven mused.
"Really?" Dan blinked
"Of course..." Raven nodded then walked out of the office. Dan looked at Tennyo, who shrugged with a smile. Dan grinned then followed Dr Raven into the maintenence bay of his garage. There were at least a few cars waiting to be fixed up. At the far end was an old junker of a car.
"Take a look at this and tell me what's wrong with it," Raven instructed as he gestured to the car.
"Okay..." Dan nodded and popped the hood. Dan nodded and popped the hood. He lifted the hood up and took a good look inside. It was a hybrid engine for sure but...
damn did it look simple compared to a fuel-cell car. Or one of Chao's models. He lifted the manifolds, opened the case's of both the combustion engine and the electric generator and peered insided. "Damn...The generator looks worn and the pistons need work...but lets make sure."
Dan rolled up his sleeps and began to tinker, checking parts and connections. Dr Raven watched Dan work, mildly impressed. After a bit Dan pulled his head out of the hood and looked at him. "Can you start her up?"
"Already?" Raven blinked, geting behind the wheel. The car started up with a throaty humm. "Not bad..."
"Hybrid cars are a bit tricky..." Dan noted, "but that seems to have done it."
"Very nice," Raven agreed after he shut the car down. Coming around to whgere Dan stood he added, "I'm getting a little old for this job, I could use a assistant. You interested?"
"Seriously?!" Dan blinked, glanced at Tennyo, who just nodded. "Of course...we could use the cash...what with us being off the boat and all, y'know."
Raven looked amused. "And I expect you don;t have ID?" h asked
"Well, we do but I have no idea if it's valid," Tennyo decided to be frank
Raven grunted. "Well, I don't think you're out to rob me, so we'll let that pass for now," he decided
"Thank you," Tennyo nodded.
"Your welcome..." Raven nodded then asked them. "Do you have a place to stay?"
Both of them shook their head.
"I can clear out a store room, I think," Raven shrugged. "Aint comfy, but it'll do for now."
"That will do," Tennyo nodded then bowed. "Thank you very much."
****Later****
"Well that takes care of that..." Tennyo noted as she sat on a cot then glanced at Dan. "Now what?"
"I can't BELIEVE how lucky we got," Dan noted, shaking his head
"How so?" Tennyo asked.
"He's a minor character from Bubblegum Crisis!" Dan murmured quietly.
"Yeah..." Dan nodded then sighed. "However...I am thankful for this."
"So.. what does he do in the series?" Tennyo asked.
"Helps build Motoslaves, as I recall. Other stuff too." Dan nodded.
"So we've wandered into their support group?" Tennyo asked him.
"Most likely..." Dan nodded then sighed. "We'd better keep quiet about this around him though."
"Right..." Tennyo nodded then yawned. "Well we have a busy day tommorrow. Lets get some rest."
"Right..." Dan nodded.
****The next morning****
"They're WHERE?" Sylia blinked as she listened to the other person on the line. She was in bed in her nightgown and Priss was cuddled up next to her. Priss frowned,
wondering where the people were looking for were holed up now.
"Raven's garage." Reika Chang noted as she sat in in a flat across from the garage then asked "Should we be concerned, Sylia?"
"Raven's garage?" Sylia hummed, not noticing the concern on Priss's face. "This could work to our advantage. We can keep an eye on them there?"
"Understood, Reika out," Reika answered crisply then cut the link.
"So they're crashing at Raven's garage? And you're okay with that?" Priss blinked.
"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Sylia noted as she gazed at Priss "We can monitor them there easier than if they're wandering all over town."
"If you say so..." Priss shrugged.
"I do," Sylia nodded then looked at her. "Care to check on them yourself?"
"Me?" Priss pointed at herself.
"I just want to see what they will do, can you do that?" Sylia smiled.
"Fine, but you owe me one," Priss noted.
****An hour later****
Dan munched on a piece of toast as Tennyo went over the want ads while she ate breakfast too. They ate quietly, with a smattering of small talk being shared between them. It was nice to have a secure place, but it was also important to keep that place.
"Hmmm...there are a few places to choose from" Tennyo noted then looked up at Dan and teased a bit. "..though I don't think I'll be as lucky as you."
"Stop..." Dan made a face. He perked up when he heard the throaty rumble of a high performance motorcycle engine pull into the garage and then stopped. "First customer?"
"Better finish up your meal and get down there," Tennyo noted.
"Right..." Dan nodded.
"Hey Pops!" a voice called.
Dan and Tennyo exchanged a look as they heard him complain, "It's Doctor, damn it!"
"Never mind that...I need a refill of the raven special...okay Pops," Priss waved that off.
"Its Doctor, I tell you," Dr Raven grumped.
"Is that?" Tennyo asked
"I think so," Dan left the kitchen in a hurry to get down to the garage. Once he was at the garage door he quickly slipped inside the maintenance bay to see what was going on. The woman in biking leathers looked older than Dan was expecting, Then again, she'd been through a lot, Dan figured. Priss looked around then noticed Dan lurking in the background. She turned to Dr Raven and murmured to the older man.
"Hey, who's the kid?" Priss asked curiously as she stood next to a monster of a high performance bike.
"My new assistant, Dan." Dr Raven then waved him over. Dan obliged and look a good look at her. She still had long hair, thankfully but it was much more tustled than he remembered. Still he would recognize that face anywhere. "Dan, meet Priss Asagiri, my most annoying customer."
"I'm not THAT bad." Priss lied.
"You keep calling me pops damn it," Raven grumbled.
"Anyway, nice to meetcha," Priss reached out with a hand.
"Nice to meet you too, Priss, Dan blinked then smiled, nodding as they shook hands. Dan noticed how strong her grip was and how smooth her skin was.
"Ah, you can let go now, okay, Danny-boy," Priss noted with a with half lidded eyes and a knowing smile on her face.
"Gack," Dan tugged his hand away causing Priss to laugh. Dan sweatdropped and shook his head. 'Why does everyone call me that?'
"Dan, could you go start on that bike we were tuning?" Raven asked mildly
"Oh right," Dan nodded and made his way over to the motorcycle and went to work, checking the connections on the bikes electric generator first.
"Priss...a moment," Raven murmured waved her to the back of the maintenance bay. "There's something odd about him and his friend.. haven't put my finger on it yet. I don't think they set up rescuing me, they're not the type, but something is off."
Priss thought about telling him what Sylia said, then decided not to. No point making him paranoid. "We'll keep an eye on them, just in case," she said.
"Thank you..." Dr Raven nodded.
EOF
Bubblegum Crisis and all of its characters are copyrighted to AIC and Kenichi Sonoda. This is a shoujo ai/yuri story, as well as a self insert and if nether is your liking I'd suggest hitting the back button.