A MegaTokyo Change #3 -
Project Michael
Sylvie and Priss rode up to where Sylia had told them Michelle home was
located. It didn't look all that expensive to either of them. It
seemed like another old building to the pair. It certainly didn't look
like it cost the amount that Sylia had quoted for the purchase of the
building.
A large garage door blankly stared at them and after a moment it opened.
The pair pushed their motocycles into the garage. It looked similar to what
Raven's was like, except simpler and smaller. The garage was occupied by a
silver colored motoycle and a jet black car that together took up a fair
portion of the garage. The motocycle was the one the Priss and Sylvie had
convinced Michelle to get with her pay. The car was an older model car
but one that seemed very streamlined to them.
"Priss, Sylvie . . .nice to see you here. Glad you made it in time for my
car's christening." Michelle came out of the back. She was wearing a
mechanic's suit and and had an oddly shaped tool in her hand.
Lita was hanging on Michelle's shoulder and wearing a pair of safety
goggles. She gave a half irritated bleek.
_______________________
_______________________
A MegaTokyo Change #3 - Project Michael
fanfic by Peter Withers
BGC doesn't belong to me.
David Weber's Honor Harrington series or the wonderful treecat
don't belong to me.
Neither does V.I.P.E.R.
Only Michelle Grey and Lita as characters do.
This takes place after BGC #8 and before Bubblegum Crash #1
________________________
________________________
"Nice to see you too Stinker." Sylvie cheerfully said as the treecat buma
jumped into her arms.
"Knew I shouldn't have let Sylia get a hold of those books. Knew it."
Michelle mocked growled.
"So what's with this big old ugly machine." Priss smirked as she patted
the hood of the car in question.
"Hey, its not ugly."
"Well it doesn't look like most cars." Sylvie remarked.
"It gave me something to do when I'm not working on Saber business or with
the few clients that I work for. I didn't think I would enjoy working on
the modifications so much though. With a lot of help from Doctor Raven."
"What kind of modifications?"
"A general increase in accel, speed, traction control, braking, etc. I
added some computer support. A battle computer and a backup."
"A battle computer?"
"I never said this bastard wasn't unarmed. Laser weaponry beside the
front and rear lights. Particle beam cannons and railguns that tract and
retract from the sides. Armor and near unbreakable glass bonded with a
clear metal that my nanites came up with. And for the finale, stealth
and anti laser coating on top of the armor. I should mention I'm added the
antilaser coating and light armor to my motocycle."
"What kind of car was it?"
"It was a near wreck that I had found. It came from when the car dealers
here during the 2000's attempted to meet the U.S. sports car market with a
cheaper and better version. It didn't work there, but there are still
some floating around in MegaTokyo. Apparently the company made too many
and couldn't get all that many shipped overseas to the markets there."
( For those trying to picture the unmodified car, it would be similar in
looks to that of a AD Police car in 2033. More slender, powerful, and
vicious looking of course. And more metal as opposed to the ADP design. )
"So why did you and Pops go through all that trouble to rebuild this thing.
You already have your motocycle." Priss asked.
"That's _Doctor_!" The trio giggled at Michelle's impression. "Well,
it was a challenge to make the changes I wanted without changing the
framework of the car majorly. I had some freed up time and I wanted
something to drive that wasn't a motocycle. Besides it might come in
handy."
"Like how?"
Michelle didn't say something but grinned. She grabbed a pair of VR
glasses and a remote control unit. The back of the car slid open and a
small hover thing floated out of it. It made a very slight whine as it
hovered, but it didn't shake a bit. Priss almost went for her gun.
"It's a full video/audio hover spy I worked up. A couple of months ago
I went through some American historical entertainment archives and found a
description of a device that I liked. With a lot of work and design, I
came up with this."
"It's nice." Priss couldn't see how Michelle could be interested in
something like that.
"Well, are we going riding or what?"
"Sure, just give me a minute to change."
"It'd take you a lot more than a minute."
"Take one, know one, right Priss?" Michelle went in back. After a
minute, she came out wearing a jet black motocyle outfit. A helmet of
the same shade was under her arm.
______________________________
______________________________
As the three women rode their motocycles on the various expressways and
highways of MegaTokyo. . .
"Activate Project Michael."
"Yes sir." Madiagan had minor doubts about Project Michael and testing it
out on the Knight Sabers. But it was decided with the way Largo was
destroyed by the Knight Saber calling herself Monica, that the project was
needed with the potential problems.
_____________________________
_____________________________
Michelle stepped in right behind Priss and Sylvie and into Sylia's
livingroom. They were actually early for the meeting for once. After
several hours of riding the streets, the trio had ended up near Sylia's
about half an hour early for the meeting. In Sylia's living room,
Michelle tried to relax in a chair but a vagely unsettling feeling started
to effect her. It was unlike anything she had ever experienced in her
life.
"Sylia why did you call us here?" Priss asked once everyone was there.
"I would like us to work on some training excercises over the next couple
of weeks. Business has been quiet lately and we should take the
opportunity to practice.. There hasn't been any sort of indications that
Genom is up to something, but we should be prepared for it."
Michelle blinked several times as her vision went double for a few seconds.
She ignored the feeling and listened to Sylia.
"I have set up several sessions at Survival Shoot." Priss let out a
slight groan at the memory of the last game of paintball there.
"Sylvie, I would like for you to consider joining us as a member. As
backup at present."
Sylvie's mouth dropped open in shock. Priss gave a broad grin at the
thought of Sylvie joining the Knight Sabers. "O-okay." Sylvie agreed
shyly.
Michelle opened her mouth to say something when something painful felt like
it physically struck her mind. She let out a hourse scream and fell off
of her chair. The rest of the people in the room stared at her in shock
as she withed in agony on the floor.
Sylia kneeled down as Michelle stopped twisting in agony. Michelle cried
as waves of pain practically paralyzed her body.
_______________________
_______________________
"I occassionally got twinges of pain without an injury in the past Sylia,
but nothing like today's." Michelle tried not to looked as worried as she
felt, but was failing. She could even now, several hours and several
doses of painkiller later, feel some throbbing pain.
"I gave you a complete scan of your body and cybernetic systems and
compared it to the one several months ago just before Largo. You should
know that the lines between your biological and mechanical can only be
seen on the near molecular level. The nanites also seem to be much more
advanced than before. When I took an EKG of your brain, I found this:
the first scan showed your brainwave pattern and a faint feedback from your
AI."
"And today..."
Sylia showed her the readback. "There are two patterns of faint
feedbacks, one fainter than the other. From what I can deduce, all three
of the patterns in the EKG are interfering with each other at times,
causing high stimulation in your pain receptors."
"Why is it there?" Michelle asked that question to the nanite AI too.
"Honestly, I don't know."
//Unknown. Analysis indicates possible malignant effect.//
::Get rid of it then.::
//Unable to comply.//
::Why not?::
//Unknown. Pattern under protection of AI system and biological for
unknown reason.//
"Sylia, my AI can't get rid of the pattern and it doesn't know why."
Michelle said almost calmly. "How bad can it get?"
"Michelle, if the episodes continued to happen, the amount of pain might
cripple you, drive you insane, or even kill you. They're happening
almost randomly, so I can't predict when and how they are going to effect
you. I have to take you off of the team combatwise until we can find an
answer to your problems."
"But - you can't - not now." She took a deep breath. " I understand."
Michelle got off of the examining table. "I'm not much use to the team
like this, am I?"
"You can continue with most of your duties except for participating on
assignments."
"Yes, boss." Michelle sounded resigned as she walked out of the room.
As soon as she was in the guest apartment, she collapsed on the bed and
sobbed. Sylia watched impassively from the video room.
__________________________
__________________________
A few days later, Linna walked into the workout room to find Michelle,
trying a simple Tai Chi excercise. Her eyes were closed as she attempted
to stay calm. A few seconds later, she yelled out in frustration.
She turned toward Linna.
"Linna, hi."
"Hi, that was pretty good. Where did you learn that?"
"A combination of a few classes, some video and pretty good memory. I
just wish I could get the feeling that I see from those I saw doing it."
"It takes a long time for that."
"I know, but that feeling would be nice about now."
"Is what happened to you. . .did it happen again?"
"Not like what you saw, but pretty bad. It's hard to deal with. I've
always had good control even when I was fully human, then this happens.
All that I have worked for the past four decades, I have lost."
"You'll be okay. Sylia will come up with something."
"I don't know. My systems are so different from anything else she had
ever dealt with before. I can't think of what would happen if I went
into cyberpsychosis with my abilities."
"Don't think about that."
Michelle gave a wry smile. "I'd probably steal my suit and try to point
myself toward Genom Tower."
"Don't even consider doing something like that. Sylia would have your
ass."
"Undoubtably. So what brings you here, Linna?"
"I'm here for some practice."
"Really, and you think I'm here to be your practice dummy during sparring?"
Linna looked a bit embarassed. "Okay, I'll spar with you more for
now on. But under one condition; you start trying out for dance
auditions again."
"What?! But, you know what happened the last time." Linna shuddered at
the memories of what had occured. She had been so much better than the
other women trying out but had failed to meet the director's tastes in
standard women.
"I do, but that was only one time. And besides, the person in charge had
to be a tasteless hack not to choose you. Even if he was going by looks."
Linna blushed slightly. Then her face hardened and she dropped into a
fighting stance.
"I'll take that as a yes."
________________________
________________________
"Let me get this straight. A Gotham Corporation wants us to recover some
research and prototypes that Genom stole from them. But they want to
make sure that Genom doesn't know that they hired us. They paid us five
million up front; five million if we destroy the research and fifteen
million if we collect everything intact."
"That is correct. I have gotten the location where Genom is keeping the
research and prototypes. Nene, you will retrieve the data from the
computer systems. Linna will be your backup. Priss and I will
collect the prototype systems. Michelle, you'll be our backup and stay
with Mackie. We will be starting in about six hours."
Michelle nodded briefly before coldly walking out of the room. Sylia
took a slow sip of coffee. "We're going to have to deal with Michelle's
problem soon."
"Sylia, I thought she was getting better. That is not better." Priss
almost snarled this out.
"She's been trying to hide the worst of it from us. But what almost
worries me more is she seems to be giving up and waiting to die. She
borrowed my computers today and did some series hacking. From what I
gathered, she has been working out a Last Will and Testament, working on
various things for us, and has been uploading all known information about
her systems and her own research into the main computer."
"She's tying up her loose ends." Linna shifted forward in her chair.
"What can we do?"
"I wish I knew. As much as possible, just try to be there for her."
Priss took one glance at the rest of the team before leaving. She had
some things to work out with Michelle. Sylvie followed right behind her.
___________________________
___________________________
Michelle stalked into the garage and mounted her motocycle. She wanted
speed and wanted it now. It was one thing to rationally know that Sylia
was planning on keeping her out of direct combat, but it was another to
hear it from Sylia during the meeting.
"Michelle wait up." Michelle turned her head to see Priss get on her own
motocycle. Beside Priss, Sylvie was doing the same.
Michelle gave a nod and did what Priss asked. This was not a time for
words, but rather riding.
They tore out onto the highway at almost 160 kph. Priss knew that it
wasn't wise to ride a motocycle the way Michelle was riding it when angry,
but who was she to say anything. She also knew that Michelle had lost
a lot of her enhanced abilities because of her problems, but she couldn't
tell that now. But what worried her was Michelle was looking for, in the
simplest term, trouble.
And it found them, in the form of OutRiders.
Priss tried to lose them by having Michelle, Sylvie, and herself speed up
and wildly dodge cars on the highway. That didn't work. She could
almost see the grin through Michelle's helmet as she dropped her speed to
vent some of her anger.
The first OutRider tried to brain Michelle with a crowbar. Michelle
caught it and yanked it out of his surprised hands. She threw it with
devasating accuracy into the front wheel mechanism of the OutRider's
motocycle. The rider flipped over the handlebars and onto the pavement.
The second flipped a chain toward her. She grabbed the chain in midair
and pulled the motocyclist off of his motocycle and toward her. He got a
hard fist into his gut and was thrown onto the pavement.
The third was almost as surprised when Michelle wrapped the chain around
his wrist and yanked him off of his motocycle. She left him and the chain
on the highway.
The four victim felt her fury when she pulled a metal bar out of a hidden
compartment of her motocycle and braked hard. She clotheslined the
Outrider off of his motocycle.
The rest of the OutRiders left when they saw she was about to be backed up
by two more motocyclists. The sound of police sirens echoed throughout
the early evening. The trio of motocyclists paused for a moment before
quickly leaving.
__________________________
"How did you do that thing with your motocycle?" Priss asked. "One
minute it's silver, the next it is jet black."
"The very top layer of my motocycle's armor has a thin layer of a electic
sensative alloy that was painted on. If a slight current runs through
it, it is black. If it doesn't, it is silver. My car does the same
thing except its default color is a deep cobalt blue."
"Very nice. Do you think you can do that with my bike?" Priss wanted to
keep her mind off of her problems. She also wanted to give Sylvie time to
tell Sylia what happened.
"That wouldn't be a problem when I have some time. It would only take a
few hours total." Michelle smiled slightly. "I might work something for
my hardsuit."
"Well, we better get ready. Sylia is going to get here any minute."
"You're right. We should be ready when Sylia wants to go. Sylvie
should be done talking to Sylia about today any minute now."
Priss glared at Michelle. "You knew."
"Yep. I figured that Sylia might want to know that I had trashed four
OutRiders. I may not real healthy right now, but my mind still running
on most of its cylinders."
"Well at least your mind working like usual."
"That's right - hey!" Michelle looked indignant. Priss snickered at the
look on Michelle's face.
_________________________
"I'm picking up four boomers guarding the research facility. They are
all type C55."
"Priss and I will take care of the boomers. Linna, you and Nene get the
electronic research. Knight Sabers. . .Sanjo!"
Michelle watched as the rest of the team jumped out of the KnightWing.
She scanned over the boomers in the visible range. Something was off about
them. It was though. . . oh no. She keyed her comnet. "Sylia, get
out of there!" Noise went through her comnet as jamming struck it hard.
It was too late. The C55s attacked with a precision and ability that was
far beyond their normal operations. One grabbed Linna's monomolecular
ribbon in mid swing and slammed her into the ground. Linna bounced
several times along the ground. Priss struck out at her oppenent with
her impact blasters. The boomer didn't block or dodge; it tapped the
blow way off course and then grabbed Priss' arm and tossed her.
Sylia fired at her oppenent. The boomer dodged it skillfully. It
stopped for a moment and Sylia let off several shots with her energy
weapons. The boomer grabbed Priss out of midair and used her as a shield
against Sylia weapons. Priss yelled out in pain as the lasers struck
her. Sylia dodged out of the way as Priss flew (not under her own power)
by her. The one fighting Nene turned briefly and knocked Priss back in
Sylia's direction. Sylia couldn't dodge Priss that time. Nene
frantically went over these boomers communications net, trying to break
their communication links. The boomer fighting her fired several smoke
and varied light rounds that blinded her sensors. She felt the distinct
sensation of being propelled through the air by a well placed punch.
Michelle looked on in horror as the Knight Sabers were decimated by these
boomers. They had been split up, then were now being destroyed. Barely
tolerable pain flared like fire as she powered up her cybernetics to full.
Mackie didn't even notice that she had left as he tried to raise his
sister on the communication net.
Sylia got slowly to her feet. She could feel the blinding pain that
radiated from her head. ::A concussion, most likely.:: Beside her
Priss got slowly to her feet, bruised and cracked ribs slowing her down.
Linna bit her lip as the boomer slammed her into the pavement. All her
moves and fighting skill were coming up with little in the way of defense.
The boomer seemed to want to take time to kill her slowly. It
prepared to charge again, but then staggered. A blade peeked through its
armor briefly before sliding back. Blood briefly gushed through the
wound before it stopped. It turned to receive a pair of high powered
plasma weapons directly into its face. It hit the ground ten meters away
and bounced up on its feet.
Linna stared at Michelle who was standing there. The one that was
fighting Nene also was studying Michelle. It had been knocked off its
feet by a well placed series of attack manuvers. The boomer that was
fighting Linna said in a cold voice. "Another night, Knight Sabers." As
one, the boomers turned and left. Michelle picked Linna up and helped
her to the KnightWing. Sylia, Priss and Nene were already getting in it.
Michelle slumped in her seat. The other team members were helping each
other with their wounds.
"Michelle, could you help us please." Priss winced as her rib gave
slightly.
"Michelle!" With a feeling of dread, Sylia overrode the command sequence
to Michelle's helmet and pulled it off. A trickle of blood dripped down
from Michelle's nose and out of her mouth.
_____________________
"Her body seemed to have given out due to the strain of overpowering her
cybernetics. That would have injured her even if she was healthy, but
with the condition she's in..."
"Will she be alright?"
"I don't know. She is currently in a coma and her cybernetics are barely
online. Her nanite repair systems are currently repairing the damage at a
slow rate. But her mind, I don't know. I have studied the data that
Michelle was downloading at the time of her collapse, and it is my
conclusion that we are not dealing with boomers, but modified boomeroids."
"Boomeroids?"
"Ones that were apparently designed to counter each of our strengths and
use our weaknesses against us."
"What do we do Sylia."
"Wait until they make the next move. I will talk to my sources about
finding more information about these boomeroids."
______________________
"Why didn't you destroy the Knight Sabers while you had the chance?!"
Madigan snarled in anger at these boomeroids.
"With the arrival of the Knight Saber Monica Angel, there was a 15.2%
probability of the Knight Sabers successfully achieving victory without
desired casualities and 39.8% probility of one of the units being destroyed
or a compromise of information about these units. There was a 21.7%
probility of the information being linked to Genom, which is a violation
of our directives."
"You will destroy the Knight Sabers soon using any means necessary, do you
understand. Even the revealing of yourselves."
"Order understood ma'am. With self modification abilites, the units would
have a 97.5% probability of total success and a 99.2% probility of success
adequate to orders."
"I will inform Chairman Quincy about your suggestion."
"Yes ma'am." The boomeroid waited until she was gone and turned back to
the others. "To complete the objectives of the mission set by Genom, it
will be important to remove obstacles to acheiving parameters."
"Genom could be as much of an obstacle to completing the mission as they
desire the mission to be completed."
"Historical records indicate that military organizations in the past
centuries had similar problems."
"Soldiers died due to the lack of indecisiveness of purpose."
"Override circuitry to override Genom's override complete. Downloading
format modifications to other units. Self modification circuitry
online."
"Completion of mission set to parameter - 'any means necessary'."
______________________
A sea of darkness. Every direction that Michelle turned, that was all
that she saw.
She could hear a voice in the distance and walked toward it. A feeling
coursed through her that the voice had the answers that she desired.
Her heartbeat increased slightly in anticipation and fear.
The sea of darkness disappeared, replaced by what looked like her home's
living room. A living room that was occupied.
"Hi Michelle." The woman on the couch said as Michelle's jaw dropped open
in astonishment.
"You?! You're the one responsible for all of what happened to me."
"I'm sorry for what I did to you. I didn't mean to hurt you this badly by
becoming active. I just wanted to live." Tears trickled down her face.
Michelle sat down beside her and wiped them off of the girl's face.
"Don't cry about it. You've got just as much right to live as I do."
"As do all of us." Another voice smoothly interjected. Both women
turned toward the voice's direction. A figure very much like Sean Connory
during the mid to late 1990's.
"Who would you be?" Michelle asked cautiously.
"I would be the one known as your partner for the past years. This is
just my image for your dream."
"You're the n-AI." 'Connory' nodded at Michelle's statement. "You've
got good taste."
"Thank you, thank you." He bowed slightly. "But now for the business.
We've got to get ourselves going so we can help the Knight Sabers. From
my analysis of the information we had about those boomeroids, they will
need it."
"The easiest thing would be for me to. . .die." The woman beside Michelle
almost seemed ready to cry.
"No." Michelle's voice was flat. "I will not allow that." The n-AI
nodded his head in agreement.
"If we can work together then we might stand a chance until I get you a new
body Anri."
______________________
"Come on, wake up Michelle." Sylvie pleaded to Michelle in the room.
The monitors told Sylvie that Michelle wasn't listening. "The others
could use your help in taking those monsters out."
The viewscreen near them started a special report. "Tragedy struck the
southwest MegaTokyo Elementary School. It is confirmed that 24 students
are dead and 32 are injured due to four rouge C55s. Genom has no
statement as of this time."
"Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-" The heartrate monitor sounded its flatline
sound.
Sylvie turned in fear and found Michelle's hand wrapped around the cord.
Michelle's eyes turned to Sylvie's. "Sylvie." She grunted slightly
as air was forced out her lungs by a hug. "Would you help me up, please?
I'm fine now."
"You're not alright. The doctor and Sylia said you overextended every
system in your body, flesh and cybernetic. That with your problem. . ."
"The problem we had has been dealt with for now at least."
"Really, but how?"
::Anri, would you like to. .::
::Thank you!::
Sylvie watched in shock as Michelle's face and figure changed to one that
she found very familiar. "What are you doing?"
"It's me - Anri." A very familiar voice said to her.
"But - but."
"Michelle had transfered me to her when I was dying. I had felt myself
shifted from my body to her systems. Then I lost myself and Michelle
forgot me because of an electrical surge. I just woke up a few weeks ago."
"Anri. . .It's you. I've missed you, it's been so long." She hugged
her companion.
"Sylvie, Michelle said that she is happy that you are so happy. And that
we had heard the last of that broadcast." Her voice and figure shifted
to Michelle's.
"What has been happening around here?"
To Sylvie's credit, she barely blinked in shock. "Those boomers that you
helped fight four nights ago, they weren't boomers. They were
boomeroids."
"I know. My n-AI briefed me on the information that it had downloaded
during the fight." Sylvie showed a small electronic notepad with
information about the attacks.
"In the past few days, those boomeroids have been targeting various public
areas and killing people randomly but today's was the worst. There has
been close to a hundred dead and hundreds injured all together. Sylia
has found a pattern in their attacks. If it is true, they intend to
destroy a housing complex two nights from now."
Michelle's eyes close in thought. "Get Sylia, Sylvie. Make sure she
knows it's a trap. They're trying to draw us out before we're ready to
fight them."
"Sylia said that - how'd you know?"
"From the fight I was in and this stuff. They're not acting like boomers,
but rather like team of human soldiers leading the enemy into an ambush."
"I'll get Sylia."
__________________________
Linna, Priss, and Nene looked on in amazment as Michelle and Sylia went
into a rapidfire analysis and study of all the data on the boomeroids.
Except for some of Nene's help on the computers and answering a few
questions about their fights, it was just Michelle and Sylia.
"So your conclusion is the boomeroid human components are from a
genetically modified human." Sylia asked simply.
"One genetically modified human; a soldier. The blood sample on my sword
showed genetic markers of an unknown variety. Except for the differences
in the armor that they had, the boomeroids all fought alike and had the
same human fighting patterns. Not the cold fighting style of a machine.
They also communicated somehow on a wavelength that Nene couldn't detect,
and/or they thought almost alike. Your earlier analysis came up with a
similar solution."
"Are you ready for this mission?"
"As much as possible. Anri, my own n-AI, and myself have come up with a
solution for our problem for at least the present situation. One of us
will be near dormat will the other two are active. During noncombat
situations, it'll be Anri and me. During combat it be the n-AI and me.
Is the team ready?"
Sylia described a variety of injuries that truely impressed Michelle.
Broken limbs, bruises, cuts, light concussions. She knew that they
wouldn't be ready unless. . .
"Sylia, Priss, Nene, Linna - we're not going to be ready in time to fight
unless. . ."
"No! I know what you are thinking Michelle. There is no way you are
going to make me into a fucking cyborg." Priss snarled angrily. The
rest of the team looked vagely unsettled to varying degrees at the
proposal.
"I'm not going to do something as crude as what you have seen on the
streets. I can use my nanite systems to inject temporary nanites into
your systems. They can speed your healing some and increase your
abilities to make up for the rest. At most, your talking between two and
four percent replacement and addition spread throughout your bodies. That
is mainly in the form of bone/muscle threading and biological repairs.
None visible, all of it. If you want the nanites gone, they'll be
ejected from you in something like a week."
"What about cyberpsychosis?" Sylia asked.
"It'll be handled a little like my situation. After the initial burst of
healing and enhancements, the augmentations will lower themselves down to
near human normal. A lot closer than mine ever was though. All that will
be there if you decide to get rid of the nanites is the strengthened bone
and muscle systems. If you decide to keep the enhancements, they will
slowly rise to the initial stage over several years. All that will be
noticeable will be your increased health and healing through the nanites.
And if something starts to happen, they can be turned off easily."
"I'll do it." The rest of the group turned in surprise at Nene. "What
will it take to start this?"
"One shot." Nene shuddered at the thought of a shot. "Then a few
pinpricks around your body."
With Nene's agreement, the rest of the group soon decided to agree to the
procedure. Before you ask, even Priss agreed reluctantly.
A day later, most of the teams wounds and cracked bones were healed.
Several injections of nanites did their jobs well. Nene was first for the
treatment, followed by Sylia, Priss, then Linna.
_____________________
Michelle looked in wonder as Nene tossed Linna across the excercise floor
again. ::That girl is definately taking advantage of her case.:: Nene
seemed to enjoy the fact that her enhancements had started and Linna's
hadn't yet. The four times speed and two times strength enhancement was
giving her a chance that Nene had thought she would never get; beating
Linna in a sparring match.
"She is enjoying that way too much." Priss from beside Michelle.
Michelle turned to see that most of her friend's wounds were healed, even
though she had taken the worst of the boomeroids' punishments.
"I know. It's going to be tough for her to give up some of the
enhancements for the time necessary to get use to them safely. But
you'll like what's going to happen in about half an hour or so."
"What?"
"Linna's enhancements come on fully." Priss chuckled then gasped
slightly.
"What's wrong?"
"Everything looks strange. Patterns of red and purple."
"Blink twice." Priss did so and her vision went back to normal.
"Infrared vision. The blinking caused your eyes to be able to stay
normal." She looked at Priss thoughtfully. "You've got more coming in
than I thought."
"Like what?" Priss snarled this at Michelle. The casual way the
Michelle was treating the situation was making her so mad.
"The same physical enhancements as the rest of the team plus your eyes.
Infrared and nightvision. Also what looks like an audio adjuster." At
Priss' questioning look (which like many looks like her angry look)
Michelle explained. "It's a ventriloquist voice. Any voice, anywhere,
any way you want. Once you get use to it you'll never get a sore throat
again." Michelle chuckled at Priss' expression.
"Just clear your throat and it will stay normal until you want the
enhancemnt on." Priss cleared her throat.
"You've got a plan, don't you?"
"We're seriously outmatched even when we're up to speed. I think we
might need some help."
"What kind of help? I can't think of anyone who can help us against those
things. And the AD police would be a joke to them."
"I think Sylvie can help us out." Michelle ignored Anri's mental voice
pleading her not to suggest what Michelle was thinking of.
"Sylvie? But she doesn't have a hardsuit yet and. . . oh no, you wouldn't
even think about having her pilot that thing!"
"I checked it out and reprogramed the computer to work right. It is the
only thing we have that can provide strong long range support. I am only
going to ask her."
"It's still insane."
"Like sanity helps."
__________________________
Genom Tower -
Unlike what many people think of Genom, the executives of Genom do have
souls and a sense of right vs wrong. They just don't use them all that
often. Katherine Madigan was starting to feel a sense of guilt. Partly
because it might be her fault for what was happening with 'Project
Micheal', mostly because it was setting her up for a serious failure that
could cause her to go into retirement. Permently.
The analysis of what the boomeroids were doing for the past few days was
coming in. One Hundred and twenty-two deaths and two hundred and fifty
injuries. Including fifteen people that they had dismembered in the most
sadistic manner that Madiagan had ever heard of.
And worst yet, no sign of the Knight Sabers since the first battle even
with the boomeroids baiting them in this fashion.
Still something else was bothering her and she didn't know what.
_______________________________
"Your hands are shaking." Nene said to Michelle in concern. Usually
Michelle was so confident in herself normally but this was a serious
deviation from all of that.
"I've - we've never faced anything like these boomeroids before."
"Are you concerned about your part of the plan?"
"No, but if they are cornered, they're going to fight harder than anything
we saw the first time. I'm worried that some of us won't come back from
this mission."
"We know what we are doing. We wouldn't be doing this unless we did."
Michelle smiled. "Thanks for the help. So how were your sparring
matches with Linna?"
Nene gave her an angry look. "You could've told me that Linna's
enhancements were about to come on."
"That wouldn't have been fun."
Michelle grinned at Nene's 'hummph'. After a moment, she placed her
helmet on and readied to make her jump out of the KnightWing as it hovered.
"See you at the place."
"Good luck." Michelle nodded and jumped out of the jet.
_______________________
The Michael Boomeroid model A scanned the area for signs of the Knight
Sabers. Since they were only human, their decision making processes
would be influenced by the actions taken in the past few days.
It stalked forward and crushed the skull of a fleeing human like the rats
the boomeroid knew they were. Eventually their enemies would show up
and they would be crushed. If it could've smiled, it would've. It
considered the reaction of Katherine Madigan as it presented the Knight
Sabers heads to her just before she joined them. The bitch thought she
could control them with an override, directives, and a self destruct.
Those were found and neutralized once she had inadvently released the
self-modifying circuitry.
::Once the Knight Sabers were dead. . .:: It's claws twitched in
anticipation to giving it's report and opinions to the Genom executive.
"Hey you mechanical bastard!" It managed to get half turned toward the
source of the voice when it received a powerful energy blast in the face
that threw it back twenty meters. It got up just in time to see a grey
armored suit activated it jets and retreat. A moment later, four
boomeroids were in persuit of the hardsuit.
Michelle tried to calm down as her jets whined due to their operation.
She was barely keeping ahead of them and she was on emergency power.
"Shit!" She was being targeted by one of them. She turned on two
directions and jetted toward the pavement. She missed several cars by
less than a meter. She looked back and saw that the boomeroids were
not slowed down much by her radical actions. In the second, she noted
that they had abandoned their C55 disguises. Three of them looked sleek
and one looked like a mountain of alloys.
::There!:: Michelle saw the condemmed building. She opened up her
suit jets to full power with emergency redlined. She blew in one side
of the building and out of the other.
From the outside, several witnesses could see the entire building suddenly
engulfed in an explosion. A second later, the entire thing imploded,
collapsing on itself. Michelle relaxed at the sight of the burning
wreckage and got on her waiting motocycle. Suddenly, several figures
could be seen coming out of the flames. Except for some scorching, the
boomeroids were not hurt of even fooled much by Michelle's trap.
"Damnit!" She screamed over her suit comm. and gunned her motocycle.
The motoslave went into high gear away from the boomeroids. The
boomeroids persued for the kill. She went into a wild skid going around
a corner, almost colliding with several ADP units. Michelle winced as
she glanced back. One of the boomeroids had blown up one of the ADP cars
as it tried to back away.
She momentary lost them as she went into a near deserted part of the city.
Michelle glanced up and saw one of the boomeroids flying above her,
tracking her down easily. She opened up the motoslave all the way to a
redline. Smoke started pouring from the overstressed engine.
A moment later, out of instinct, she jumped off of the motoslave as a
particle beam pierced it. She felt herself being blown forward and
toward the ground. Her boot jets softened the blow and she bounced back
up into the air away from the smoking wreckage. She flew into the canyon
just before her jet flight systems stopped for repairs.
Boomeroid One scanned the canyon as the squad went into it. The little
ambush Monica had planned apparently went sour and she was running. The
game was almost over and she had lost. All that was left was to find
her and destroy her. The other Knight Sabers would still injured or they
would have been involved. Once they had the one Knight Saber, the rest
should be easy to find whether she was dead or alive.
A moment later, an unknown energy signature proved it wrong. Primary
sensor scans of the mass containing the energy signature indicated it had a
mass of around fifteen tons and that it was a high level threat. A
soft voice echoed around them, and said one word -
"Gotcha."
Boomeroid three screamed in electronic pain as a monomolecular blade
pierced it through the upper back. It felt a weight hold the blade in
and hang on its back.
Michelle smiled wickedly under her helmet and hung onto her sword. The
boomeroid she had stabbed couldn't attack her from there. And the other
Knight Sabers were holding off the boomeroids with help from the D.D. A
bright flare blazed the night as the D.D.'s particle pulse bolt slammed
into one of the boomeroids.
Michelle felt the comforting weight of the stealth pod on her shoulder.
The little device had prevented detection by the boomeroids. The other
pod on her left shoulder would be her own little surprise. She felt her
grip slip on her sword and she gripped it tighter. The monomolecular
edged weapon slightly slid it in and out, slowly cutting through the ultra
hard alloys.
She glanced toward the other Sabers and noted that yes, they were doing
much better against their opponents than the last time. They had
surprised them instead of vice versa, and had augmentations that they
hadn't had the last time. Michelle almost grinned at the enthusiasm that
Priss was using in fighting her opponent. Apparently she hadn't agreed
with the way she was bounced between the boomeroids during the last fight.
The boomeroid that Michelle was attached to was being frantic for an AI.
It was slowly being bisected. It activated its jets and slammed the
unfortunate Knightsaber against a building. The wall and the Knight Saber
fell to the ground. A pod snapped off of her shoulder and bounced on the
ground.
The boomeroid turned and faced its opponent, even though its power systems
were starting to fail. The opponent stood there and suddenly all the
boomeroid saw was darkness as it was destroyed. The sword had sent out
an extremely short range EMP pulse which had fried all the systems in the
boomeroid. It fell to the ground, destroyed.
Michelle wasn't much better. From her internal scannings, she had
several broken ribs and some internal bleeding. Injuries which could
have killed or crippled a normal human instead kept her from fighting.
All she could do at the moment was move away from the fighting.
From her vantage point, Michelle studied the scene. The D.D. was
providing ranged fire support that was limiting the boomeroids' mobility.
The rest of the Knight Sabers were taking advantage of that fact to fight
them on more even terms. The element of surprise and grouped tactics
that was present in the first fight for the boomeroids wasn't present in
the second fight.
She watched as the D.D. scored a crippling blow on one of the boomeroids.
The massive particle beam rifle was similar to the one Michelle had used
against her hyperboomer copy. It was only good for a few shots and had
a massive battery system, but it was worth it now.
Michelle glanced around at her teammates. "Priss is enjoying this way too
much." A slight giggle was heard in her suit communications line.
She groaned as she realized that her suit comm was still on.
She then winced as she saw the largest boomeroid wade through missle and
energy fire to land several strong blows on the DD. The battlemover
actually was jerked up and back several feet by the blow. Michelle
aimed from her position and fired. The boomeroid was hit by a
combination of laser fire and railgun spikes. It's attention wavered
for a second and Michelle dodged several particle beams.
Michelle then ducked down as the D.D. struck the boomeroid point blank with
half a dozen missles and all of its energy weapons. The boomeroid
staggered and then exploded in a rather impressive fashion.
After the destruction of the second boomeroid, the rest of the job was
basically one step over a cleanup.
The Knight Sabers left the scene just before the ADP and a Genom cleanup
crew got there. Unfortunately for them, very little was left of the
boomeroids.
__________________
"And you not only destroyed an entire building, without my permission, you
also destroyed your motorslave! What do you have to say for yourself?"
Sylia was in the process of giving Michelle a royal chewing out.
"Sylia, the building was necessary for the plan to work. And as for the
motorslave, it was unfortunate but I'll pay for it."
Sylia gritted her teeth. Michelle seemed confident about something and
she knew it was going to give her a headache. "And how will you manage to
do that little miracle?"
Michelle smiled. It wasn't a cheerful smile but rather one that was
cruel in its making and meant that someone was going to suffer greatly.
"Let's just say that someone else is going to pick of the tab for last
evening."
_______________________
Inside Genom tower, automatic scanners are studying a round white-grey
object. From the records of the battle, Genom scientists concluded that
the object was a modified ECM pod of an unknown variety. Even with only
its internal power, it was scrambling the scanners. Eventually, it was
decided that the pod should be scanned until the internal power ran out.
It was a good stragedy except for one minor detail; the pod wasn't for ECM.
Thin tentacles flowed out of near microscopic ports. As the openings
widened, so did the tentacles. The cables latched around the computer
system scanning and started adjusting the system for its own needs.
A parasitic AI is compared to a normal AI like a virus is to a CI. What
information could be found was transferred. What couldn't be transferred
was destroyed, corrupted, shifted, or encrypted.
Accounting systems started downloading tens of millions of dollars
(American) into hundreds of different accounts. Money was transferred from
those accounts to hundreds of others. Money was distributed,
redistributed, transferred, retransferred, and so on. One hundred
million dollars and fifty-three cents ended up that way. Over four times
that amount was temporarily frozen.
The p-AI wormed its way into boomer control systems and reprogrammed over
two dozen of the machines of destruction to river dance when activated.
And as a coupe de grace, the p-AI melted down into a slimy pile of goo,
taking some of the research lab with it.
______________________
Michelle chuckled evily as her notepad computer started displaying bank
account numbers. Sylia wearily shook her head. Lita bleeked her
agreement to Sylia's feelings from her perch on Michelle's shoulder.
"Sylia, how do you like your cash? Paper or plastic?"
Until next time . . . or next draft
Project Michael
Sylvie and Priss rode up to where Sylia had told them Michelle home was
located. It didn't look all that expensive to either of them. It
seemed like another old building to the pair. It certainly didn't look
like it cost the amount that Sylia had quoted for the purchase of the
building.
A large garage door blankly stared at them and after a moment it opened.
The pair pushed their motocycles into the garage. It looked similar to what
Raven's was like, except simpler and smaller. The garage was occupied by a
silver colored motoycle and a jet black car that together took up a fair
portion of the garage. The motocycle was the one the Priss and Sylvie had
convinced Michelle to get with her pay. The car was an older model car
but one that seemed very streamlined to them.
"Priss, Sylvie . . .nice to see you here. Glad you made it in time for my
car's christening." Michelle came out of the back. She was wearing a
mechanic's suit and and had an oddly shaped tool in her hand.
Lita was hanging on Michelle's shoulder and wearing a pair of safety
goggles. She gave a half irritated bleek.
_______________________
_______________________
A MegaTokyo Change #3 - Project Michael
fanfic by Peter Withers
BGC doesn't belong to me.
David Weber's Honor Harrington series or the wonderful treecat
don't belong to me.
Neither does V.I.P.E.R.
Only Michelle Grey and Lita as characters do.
This takes place after BGC #8 and before Bubblegum Crash #1
________________________
________________________
"Nice to see you too Stinker." Sylvie cheerfully said as the treecat buma
jumped into her arms.
"Knew I shouldn't have let Sylia get a hold of those books. Knew it."
Michelle mocked growled.
"So what's with this big old ugly machine." Priss smirked as she patted
the hood of the car in question.
"Hey, its not ugly."
"Well it doesn't look like most cars." Sylvie remarked.
"It gave me something to do when I'm not working on Saber business or with
the few clients that I work for. I didn't think I would enjoy working on
the modifications so much though. With a lot of help from Doctor Raven."
"What kind of modifications?"
"A general increase in accel, speed, traction control, braking, etc. I
added some computer support. A battle computer and a backup."
"A battle computer?"
"I never said this bastard wasn't unarmed. Laser weaponry beside the
front and rear lights. Particle beam cannons and railguns that tract and
retract from the sides. Armor and near unbreakable glass bonded with a
clear metal that my nanites came up with. And for the finale, stealth
and anti laser coating on top of the armor. I should mention I'm added the
antilaser coating and light armor to my motocycle."
"What kind of car was it?"
"It was a near wreck that I had found. It came from when the car dealers
here during the 2000's attempted to meet the U.S. sports car market with a
cheaper and better version. It didn't work there, but there are still
some floating around in MegaTokyo. Apparently the company made too many
and couldn't get all that many shipped overseas to the markets there."
( For those trying to picture the unmodified car, it would be similar in
looks to that of a AD Police car in 2033. More slender, powerful, and
vicious looking of course. And more metal as opposed to the ADP design. )
"So why did you and Pops go through all that trouble to rebuild this thing.
You already have your motocycle." Priss asked.
"That's _Doctor_!" The trio giggled at Michelle's impression. "Well,
it was a challenge to make the changes I wanted without changing the
framework of the car majorly. I had some freed up time and I wanted
something to drive that wasn't a motocycle. Besides it might come in
handy."
"Like how?"
Michelle didn't say something but grinned. She grabbed a pair of VR
glasses and a remote control unit. The back of the car slid open and a
small hover thing floated out of it. It made a very slight whine as it
hovered, but it didn't shake a bit. Priss almost went for her gun.
"It's a full video/audio hover spy I worked up. A couple of months ago
I went through some American historical entertainment archives and found a
description of a device that I liked. With a lot of work and design, I
came up with this."
"It's nice." Priss couldn't see how Michelle could be interested in
something like that.
"Well, are we going riding or what?"
"Sure, just give me a minute to change."
"It'd take you a lot more than a minute."
"Take one, know one, right Priss?" Michelle went in back. After a
minute, she came out wearing a jet black motocyle outfit. A helmet of
the same shade was under her arm.
______________________________
______________________________
As the three women rode their motocycles on the various expressways and
highways of MegaTokyo. . .
"Activate Project Michael."
"Yes sir." Madiagan had minor doubts about Project Michael and testing it
out on the Knight Sabers. But it was decided with the way Largo was
destroyed by the Knight Saber calling herself Monica, that the project was
needed with the potential problems.
_____________________________
_____________________________
Michelle stepped in right behind Priss and Sylvie and into Sylia's
livingroom. They were actually early for the meeting for once. After
several hours of riding the streets, the trio had ended up near Sylia's
about half an hour early for the meeting. In Sylia's living room,
Michelle tried to relax in a chair but a vagely unsettling feeling started
to effect her. It was unlike anything she had ever experienced in her
life.
"Sylia why did you call us here?" Priss asked once everyone was there.
"I would like us to work on some training excercises over the next couple
of weeks. Business has been quiet lately and we should take the
opportunity to practice.. There hasn't been any sort of indications that
Genom is up to something, but we should be prepared for it."
Michelle blinked several times as her vision went double for a few seconds.
She ignored the feeling and listened to Sylia.
"I have set up several sessions at Survival Shoot." Priss let out a
slight groan at the memory of the last game of paintball there.
"Sylvie, I would like for you to consider joining us as a member. As
backup at present."
Sylvie's mouth dropped open in shock. Priss gave a broad grin at the
thought of Sylvie joining the Knight Sabers. "O-okay." Sylvie agreed
shyly.
Michelle opened her mouth to say something when something painful felt like
it physically struck her mind. She let out a hourse scream and fell off
of her chair. The rest of the people in the room stared at her in shock
as she withed in agony on the floor.
Sylia kneeled down as Michelle stopped twisting in agony. Michelle cried
as waves of pain practically paralyzed her body.
_______________________
_______________________
"I occassionally got twinges of pain without an injury in the past Sylia,
but nothing like today's." Michelle tried not to looked as worried as she
felt, but was failing. She could even now, several hours and several
doses of painkiller later, feel some throbbing pain.
"I gave you a complete scan of your body and cybernetic systems and
compared it to the one several months ago just before Largo. You should
know that the lines between your biological and mechanical can only be
seen on the near molecular level. The nanites also seem to be much more
advanced than before. When I took an EKG of your brain, I found this:
the first scan showed your brainwave pattern and a faint feedback from your
AI."
"And today..."
Sylia showed her the readback. "There are two patterns of faint
feedbacks, one fainter than the other. From what I can deduce, all three
of the patterns in the EKG are interfering with each other at times,
causing high stimulation in your pain receptors."
"Why is it there?" Michelle asked that question to the nanite AI too.
"Honestly, I don't know."
//Unknown. Analysis indicates possible malignant effect.//
::Get rid of it then.::
//Unable to comply.//
::Why not?::
//Unknown. Pattern under protection of AI system and biological for
unknown reason.//
"Sylia, my AI can't get rid of the pattern and it doesn't know why."
Michelle said almost calmly. "How bad can it get?"
"Michelle, if the episodes continued to happen, the amount of pain might
cripple you, drive you insane, or even kill you. They're happening
almost randomly, so I can't predict when and how they are going to effect
you. I have to take you off of the team combatwise until we can find an
answer to your problems."
"But - you can't - not now." She took a deep breath. " I understand."
Michelle got off of the examining table. "I'm not much use to the team
like this, am I?"
"You can continue with most of your duties except for participating on
assignments."
"Yes, boss." Michelle sounded resigned as she walked out of the room.
As soon as she was in the guest apartment, she collapsed on the bed and
sobbed. Sylia watched impassively from the video room.
__________________________
__________________________
A few days later, Linna walked into the workout room to find Michelle,
trying a simple Tai Chi excercise. Her eyes were closed as she attempted
to stay calm. A few seconds later, she yelled out in frustration.
She turned toward Linna.
"Linna, hi."
"Hi, that was pretty good. Where did you learn that?"
"A combination of a few classes, some video and pretty good memory. I
just wish I could get the feeling that I see from those I saw doing it."
"It takes a long time for that."
"I know, but that feeling would be nice about now."
"Is what happened to you. . .did it happen again?"
"Not like what you saw, but pretty bad. It's hard to deal with. I've
always had good control even when I was fully human, then this happens.
All that I have worked for the past four decades, I have lost."
"You'll be okay. Sylia will come up with something."
"I don't know. My systems are so different from anything else she had
ever dealt with before. I can't think of what would happen if I went
into cyberpsychosis with my abilities."
"Don't think about that."
Michelle gave a wry smile. "I'd probably steal my suit and try to point
myself toward Genom Tower."
"Don't even consider doing something like that. Sylia would have your
ass."
"Undoubtably. So what brings you here, Linna?"
"I'm here for some practice."
"Really, and you think I'm here to be your practice dummy during sparring?"
Linna looked a bit embarassed. "Okay, I'll spar with you more for
now on. But under one condition; you start trying out for dance
auditions again."
"What?! But, you know what happened the last time." Linna shuddered at
the memories of what had occured. She had been so much better than the
other women trying out but had failed to meet the director's tastes in
standard women.
"I do, but that was only one time. And besides, the person in charge had
to be a tasteless hack not to choose you. Even if he was going by looks."
Linna blushed slightly. Then her face hardened and she dropped into a
fighting stance.
"I'll take that as a yes."
________________________
________________________
"Let me get this straight. A Gotham Corporation wants us to recover some
research and prototypes that Genom stole from them. But they want to
make sure that Genom doesn't know that they hired us. They paid us five
million up front; five million if we destroy the research and fifteen
million if we collect everything intact."
"That is correct. I have gotten the location where Genom is keeping the
research and prototypes. Nene, you will retrieve the data from the
computer systems. Linna will be your backup. Priss and I will
collect the prototype systems. Michelle, you'll be our backup and stay
with Mackie. We will be starting in about six hours."
Michelle nodded briefly before coldly walking out of the room. Sylia
took a slow sip of coffee. "We're going to have to deal with Michelle's
problem soon."
"Sylia, I thought she was getting better. That is not better." Priss
almost snarled this out.
"She's been trying to hide the worst of it from us. But what almost
worries me more is she seems to be giving up and waiting to die. She
borrowed my computers today and did some series hacking. From what I
gathered, she has been working out a Last Will and Testament, working on
various things for us, and has been uploading all known information about
her systems and her own research into the main computer."
"She's tying up her loose ends." Linna shifted forward in her chair.
"What can we do?"
"I wish I knew. As much as possible, just try to be there for her."
Priss took one glance at the rest of the team before leaving. She had
some things to work out with Michelle. Sylvie followed right behind her.
___________________________
___________________________
Michelle stalked into the garage and mounted her motocycle. She wanted
speed and wanted it now. It was one thing to rationally know that Sylia
was planning on keeping her out of direct combat, but it was another to
hear it from Sylia during the meeting.
"Michelle wait up." Michelle turned her head to see Priss get on her own
motocycle. Beside Priss, Sylvie was doing the same.
Michelle gave a nod and did what Priss asked. This was not a time for
words, but rather riding.
They tore out onto the highway at almost 160 kph. Priss knew that it
wasn't wise to ride a motocycle the way Michelle was riding it when angry,
but who was she to say anything. She also knew that Michelle had lost
a lot of her enhanced abilities because of her problems, but she couldn't
tell that now. But what worried her was Michelle was looking for, in the
simplest term, trouble.
And it found them, in the form of OutRiders.
Priss tried to lose them by having Michelle, Sylvie, and herself speed up
and wildly dodge cars on the highway. That didn't work. She could
almost see the grin through Michelle's helmet as she dropped her speed to
vent some of her anger.
The first OutRider tried to brain Michelle with a crowbar. Michelle
caught it and yanked it out of his surprised hands. She threw it with
devasating accuracy into the front wheel mechanism of the OutRider's
motocycle. The rider flipped over the handlebars and onto the pavement.
The second flipped a chain toward her. She grabbed the chain in midair
and pulled the motocyclist off of his motocycle and toward her. He got a
hard fist into his gut and was thrown onto the pavement.
The third was almost as surprised when Michelle wrapped the chain around
his wrist and yanked him off of his motocycle. She left him and the chain
on the highway.
The four victim felt her fury when she pulled a metal bar out of a hidden
compartment of her motocycle and braked hard. She clotheslined the
Outrider off of his motocycle.
The rest of the OutRiders left when they saw she was about to be backed up
by two more motocyclists. The sound of police sirens echoed throughout
the early evening. The trio of motocyclists paused for a moment before
quickly leaving.
__________________________
"How did you do that thing with your motocycle?" Priss asked. "One
minute it's silver, the next it is jet black."
"The very top layer of my motocycle's armor has a thin layer of a electic
sensative alloy that was painted on. If a slight current runs through
it, it is black. If it doesn't, it is silver. My car does the same
thing except its default color is a deep cobalt blue."
"Very nice. Do you think you can do that with my bike?" Priss wanted to
keep her mind off of her problems. She also wanted to give Sylvie time to
tell Sylia what happened.
"That wouldn't be a problem when I have some time. It would only take a
few hours total." Michelle smiled slightly. "I might work something for
my hardsuit."
"Well, we better get ready. Sylia is going to get here any minute."
"You're right. We should be ready when Sylia wants to go. Sylvie
should be done talking to Sylia about today any minute now."
Priss glared at Michelle. "You knew."
"Yep. I figured that Sylia might want to know that I had trashed four
OutRiders. I may not real healthy right now, but my mind still running
on most of its cylinders."
"Well at least your mind working like usual."
"That's right - hey!" Michelle looked indignant. Priss snickered at the
look on Michelle's face.
_________________________
"I'm picking up four boomers guarding the research facility. They are
all type C55."
"Priss and I will take care of the boomers. Linna, you and Nene get the
electronic research. Knight Sabers. . .Sanjo!"
Michelle watched as the rest of the team jumped out of the KnightWing.
She scanned over the boomers in the visible range. Something was off about
them. It was though. . . oh no. She keyed her comnet. "Sylia, get
out of there!" Noise went through her comnet as jamming struck it hard.
It was too late. The C55s attacked with a precision and ability that was
far beyond their normal operations. One grabbed Linna's monomolecular
ribbon in mid swing and slammed her into the ground. Linna bounced
several times along the ground. Priss struck out at her oppenent with
her impact blasters. The boomer didn't block or dodge; it tapped the
blow way off course and then grabbed Priss' arm and tossed her.
Sylia fired at her oppenent. The boomer dodged it skillfully. It
stopped for a moment and Sylia let off several shots with her energy
weapons. The boomer grabbed Priss out of midair and used her as a shield
against Sylia weapons. Priss yelled out in pain as the lasers struck
her. Sylia dodged out of the way as Priss flew (not under her own power)
by her. The one fighting Nene turned briefly and knocked Priss back in
Sylia's direction. Sylia couldn't dodge Priss that time. Nene
frantically went over these boomers communications net, trying to break
their communication links. The boomer fighting her fired several smoke
and varied light rounds that blinded her sensors. She felt the distinct
sensation of being propelled through the air by a well placed punch.
Michelle looked on in horror as the Knight Sabers were decimated by these
boomers. They had been split up, then were now being destroyed. Barely
tolerable pain flared like fire as she powered up her cybernetics to full.
Mackie didn't even notice that she had left as he tried to raise his
sister on the communication net.
Sylia got slowly to her feet. She could feel the blinding pain that
radiated from her head. ::A concussion, most likely.:: Beside her
Priss got slowly to her feet, bruised and cracked ribs slowing her down.
Linna bit her lip as the boomer slammed her into the pavement. All her
moves and fighting skill were coming up with little in the way of defense.
The boomer seemed to want to take time to kill her slowly. It
prepared to charge again, but then staggered. A blade peeked through its
armor briefly before sliding back. Blood briefly gushed through the
wound before it stopped. It turned to receive a pair of high powered
plasma weapons directly into its face. It hit the ground ten meters away
and bounced up on its feet.
Linna stared at Michelle who was standing there. The one that was
fighting Nene also was studying Michelle. It had been knocked off its
feet by a well placed series of attack manuvers. The boomer that was
fighting Linna said in a cold voice. "Another night, Knight Sabers." As
one, the boomers turned and left. Michelle picked Linna up and helped
her to the KnightWing. Sylia, Priss and Nene were already getting in it.
Michelle slumped in her seat. The other team members were helping each
other with their wounds.
"Michelle, could you help us please." Priss winced as her rib gave
slightly.
"Michelle!" With a feeling of dread, Sylia overrode the command sequence
to Michelle's helmet and pulled it off. A trickle of blood dripped down
from Michelle's nose and out of her mouth.
_____________________
"Her body seemed to have given out due to the strain of overpowering her
cybernetics. That would have injured her even if she was healthy, but
with the condition she's in..."
"Will she be alright?"
"I don't know. She is currently in a coma and her cybernetics are barely
online. Her nanite repair systems are currently repairing the damage at a
slow rate. But her mind, I don't know. I have studied the data that
Michelle was downloading at the time of her collapse, and it is my
conclusion that we are not dealing with boomers, but modified boomeroids."
"Boomeroids?"
"Ones that were apparently designed to counter each of our strengths and
use our weaknesses against us."
"What do we do Sylia."
"Wait until they make the next move. I will talk to my sources about
finding more information about these boomeroids."
______________________
"Why didn't you destroy the Knight Sabers while you had the chance?!"
Madigan snarled in anger at these boomeroids.
"With the arrival of the Knight Saber Monica Angel, there was a 15.2%
probability of the Knight Sabers successfully achieving victory without
desired casualities and 39.8% probility of one of the units being destroyed
or a compromise of information about these units. There was a 21.7%
probility of the information being linked to Genom, which is a violation
of our directives."
"You will destroy the Knight Sabers soon using any means necessary, do you
understand. Even the revealing of yourselves."
"Order understood ma'am. With self modification abilites, the units would
have a 97.5% probability of total success and a 99.2% probility of success
adequate to orders."
"I will inform Chairman Quincy about your suggestion."
"Yes ma'am." The boomeroid waited until she was gone and turned back to
the others. "To complete the objectives of the mission set by Genom, it
will be important to remove obstacles to acheiving parameters."
"Genom could be as much of an obstacle to completing the mission as they
desire the mission to be completed."
"Historical records indicate that military organizations in the past
centuries had similar problems."
"Soldiers died due to the lack of indecisiveness of purpose."
"Override circuitry to override Genom's override complete. Downloading
format modifications to other units. Self modification circuitry
online."
"Completion of mission set to parameter - 'any means necessary'."
______________________
A sea of darkness. Every direction that Michelle turned, that was all
that she saw.
She could hear a voice in the distance and walked toward it. A feeling
coursed through her that the voice had the answers that she desired.
Her heartbeat increased slightly in anticipation and fear.
The sea of darkness disappeared, replaced by what looked like her home's
living room. A living room that was occupied.
"Hi Michelle." The woman on the couch said as Michelle's jaw dropped open
in astonishment.
"You?! You're the one responsible for all of what happened to me."
"I'm sorry for what I did to you. I didn't mean to hurt you this badly by
becoming active. I just wanted to live." Tears trickled down her face.
Michelle sat down beside her and wiped them off of the girl's face.
"Don't cry about it. You've got just as much right to live as I do."
"As do all of us." Another voice smoothly interjected. Both women
turned toward the voice's direction. A figure very much like Sean Connory
during the mid to late 1990's.
"Who would you be?" Michelle asked cautiously.
"I would be the one known as your partner for the past years. This is
just my image for your dream."
"You're the n-AI." 'Connory' nodded at Michelle's statement. "You've
got good taste."
"Thank you, thank you." He bowed slightly. "But now for the business.
We've got to get ourselves going so we can help the Knight Sabers. From
my analysis of the information we had about those boomeroids, they will
need it."
"The easiest thing would be for me to. . .die." The woman beside Michelle
almost seemed ready to cry.
"No." Michelle's voice was flat. "I will not allow that." The n-AI
nodded his head in agreement.
"If we can work together then we might stand a chance until I get you a new
body Anri."
______________________
"Come on, wake up Michelle." Sylvie pleaded to Michelle in the room.
The monitors told Sylvie that Michelle wasn't listening. "The others
could use your help in taking those monsters out."
The viewscreen near them started a special report. "Tragedy struck the
southwest MegaTokyo Elementary School. It is confirmed that 24 students
are dead and 32 are injured due to four rouge C55s. Genom has no
statement as of this time."
"Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-" The heartrate monitor sounded its flatline
sound.
Sylvie turned in fear and found Michelle's hand wrapped around the cord.
Michelle's eyes turned to Sylvie's. "Sylvie." She grunted slightly
as air was forced out her lungs by a hug. "Would you help me up, please?
I'm fine now."
"You're not alright. The doctor and Sylia said you overextended every
system in your body, flesh and cybernetic. That with your problem. . ."
"The problem we had has been dealt with for now at least."
"Really, but how?"
::Anri, would you like to. .::
::Thank you!::
Sylvie watched in shock as Michelle's face and figure changed to one that
she found very familiar. "What are you doing?"
"It's me - Anri." A very familiar voice said to her.
"But - but."
"Michelle had transfered me to her when I was dying. I had felt myself
shifted from my body to her systems. Then I lost myself and Michelle
forgot me because of an electrical surge. I just woke up a few weeks ago."
"Anri. . .It's you. I've missed you, it's been so long." She hugged
her companion.
"Sylvie, Michelle said that she is happy that you are so happy. And that
we had heard the last of that broadcast." Her voice and figure shifted
to Michelle's.
"What has been happening around here?"
To Sylvie's credit, she barely blinked in shock. "Those boomers that you
helped fight four nights ago, they weren't boomers. They were
boomeroids."
"I know. My n-AI briefed me on the information that it had downloaded
during the fight." Sylvie showed a small electronic notepad with
information about the attacks.
"In the past few days, those boomeroids have been targeting various public
areas and killing people randomly but today's was the worst. There has
been close to a hundred dead and hundreds injured all together. Sylia
has found a pattern in their attacks. If it is true, they intend to
destroy a housing complex two nights from now."
Michelle's eyes close in thought. "Get Sylia, Sylvie. Make sure she
knows it's a trap. They're trying to draw us out before we're ready to
fight them."
"Sylia said that - how'd you know?"
"From the fight I was in and this stuff. They're not acting like boomers,
but rather like team of human soldiers leading the enemy into an ambush."
"I'll get Sylia."
__________________________
Linna, Priss, and Nene looked on in amazment as Michelle and Sylia went
into a rapidfire analysis and study of all the data on the boomeroids.
Except for some of Nene's help on the computers and answering a few
questions about their fights, it was just Michelle and Sylia.
"So your conclusion is the boomeroid human components are from a
genetically modified human." Sylia asked simply.
"One genetically modified human; a soldier. The blood sample on my sword
showed genetic markers of an unknown variety. Except for the differences
in the armor that they had, the boomeroids all fought alike and had the
same human fighting patterns. Not the cold fighting style of a machine.
They also communicated somehow on a wavelength that Nene couldn't detect,
and/or they thought almost alike. Your earlier analysis came up with a
similar solution."
"Are you ready for this mission?"
"As much as possible. Anri, my own n-AI, and myself have come up with a
solution for our problem for at least the present situation. One of us
will be near dormat will the other two are active. During noncombat
situations, it'll be Anri and me. During combat it be the n-AI and me.
Is the team ready?"
Sylia described a variety of injuries that truely impressed Michelle.
Broken limbs, bruises, cuts, light concussions. She knew that they
wouldn't be ready unless. . .
"Sylia, Priss, Nene, Linna - we're not going to be ready in time to fight
unless. . ."
"No! I know what you are thinking Michelle. There is no way you are
going to make me into a fucking cyborg." Priss snarled angrily. The
rest of the team looked vagely unsettled to varying degrees at the
proposal.
"I'm not going to do something as crude as what you have seen on the
streets. I can use my nanite systems to inject temporary nanites into
your systems. They can speed your healing some and increase your
abilities to make up for the rest. At most, your talking between two and
four percent replacement and addition spread throughout your bodies. That
is mainly in the form of bone/muscle threading and biological repairs.
None visible, all of it. If you want the nanites gone, they'll be
ejected from you in something like a week."
"What about cyberpsychosis?" Sylia asked.
"It'll be handled a little like my situation. After the initial burst of
healing and enhancements, the augmentations will lower themselves down to
near human normal. A lot closer than mine ever was though. All that will
be there if you decide to get rid of the nanites is the strengthened bone
and muscle systems. If you decide to keep the enhancements, they will
slowly rise to the initial stage over several years. All that will be
noticeable will be your increased health and healing through the nanites.
And if something starts to happen, they can be turned off easily."
"I'll do it." The rest of the group turned in surprise at Nene. "What
will it take to start this?"
"One shot." Nene shuddered at the thought of a shot. "Then a few
pinpricks around your body."
With Nene's agreement, the rest of the group soon decided to agree to the
procedure. Before you ask, even Priss agreed reluctantly.
A day later, most of the teams wounds and cracked bones were healed.
Several injections of nanites did their jobs well. Nene was first for the
treatment, followed by Sylia, Priss, then Linna.
_____________________
Michelle looked in wonder as Nene tossed Linna across the excercise floor
again. ::That girl is definately taking advantage of her case.:: Nene
seemed to enjoy the fact that her enhancements had started and Linna's
hadn't yet. The four times speed and two times strength enhancement was
giving her a chance that Nene had thought she would never get; beating
Linna in a sparring match.
"She is enjoying that way too much." Priss from beside Michelle.
Michelle turned to see that most of her friend's wounds were healed, even
though she had taken the worst of the boomeroids' punishments.
"I know. It's going to be tough for her to give up some of the
enhancements for the time necessary to get use to them safely. But
you'll like what's going to happen in about half an hour or so."
"What?"
"Linna's enhancements come on fully." Priss chuckled then gasped
slightly.
"What's wrong?"
"Everything looks strange. Patterns of red and purple."
"Blink twice." Priss did so and her vision went back to normal.
"Infrared vision. The blinking caused your eyes to be able to stay
normal." She looked at Priss thoughtfully. "You've got more coming in
than I thought."
"Like what?" Priss snarled this at Michelle. The casual way the
Michelle was treating the situation was making her so mad.
"The same physical enhancements as the rest of the team plus your eyes.
Infrared and nightvision. Also what looks like an audio adjuster." At
Priss' questioning look (which like many looks like her angry look)
Michelle explained. "It's a ventriloquist voice. Any voice, anywhere,
any way you want. Once you get use to it you'll never get a sore throat
again." Michelle chuckled at Priss' expression.
"Just clear your throat and it will stay normal until you want the
enhancemnt on." Priss cleared her throat.
"You've got a plan, don't you?"
"We're seriously outmatched even when we're up to speed. I think we
might need some help."
"What kind of help? I can't think of anyone who can help us against those
things. And the AD police would be a joke to them."
"I think Sylvie can help us out." Michelle ignored Anri's mental voice
pleading her not to suggest what Michelle was thinking of.
"Sylvie? But she doesn't have a hardsuit yet and. . . oh no, you wouldn't
even think about having her pilot that thing!"
"I checked it out and reprogramed the computer to work right. It is the
only thing we have that can provide strong long range support. I am only
going to ask her."
"It's still insane."
"Like sanity helps."
__________________________
Genom Tower -
Unlike what many people think of Genom, the executives of Genom do have
souls and a sense of right vs wrong. They just don't use them all that
often. Katherine Madigan was starting to feel a sense of guilt. Partly
because it might be her fault for what was happening with 'Project
Micheal', mostly because it was setting her up for a serious failure that
could cause her to go into retirement. Permently.
The analysis of what the boomeroids were doing for the past few days was
coming in. One Hundred and twenty-two deaths and two hundred and fifty
injuries. Including fifteen people that they had dismembered in the most
sadistic manner that Madiagan had ever heard of.
And worst yet, no sign of the Knight Sabers since the first battle even
with the boomeroids baiting them in this fashion.
Still something else was bothering her and she didn't know what.
_______________________________
"Your hands are shaking." Nene said to Michelle in concern. Usually
Michelle was so confident in herself normally but this was a serious
deviation from all of that.
"I've - we've never faced anything like these boomeroids before."
"Are you concerned about your part of the plan?"
"No, but if they are cornered, they're going to fight harder than anything
we saw the first time. I'm worried that some of us won't come back from
this mission."
"We know what we are doing. We wouldn't be doing this unless we did."
Michelle smiled. "Thanks for the help. So how were your sparring
matches with Linna?"
Nene gave her an angry look. "You could've told me that Linna's
enhancements were about to come on."
"That wouldn't have been fun."
Michelle grinned at Nene's 'hummph'. After a moment, she placed her
helmet on and readied to make her jump out of the KnightWing as it hovered.
"See you at the place."
"Good luck." Michelle nodded and jumped out of the jet.
_______________________
The Michael Boomeroid model A scanned the area for signs of the Knight
Sabers. Since they were only human, their decision making processes
would be influenced by the actions taken in the past few days.
It stalked forward and crushed the skull of a fleeing human like the rats
the boomeroid knew they were. Eventually their enemies would show up
and they would be crushed. If it could've smiled, it would've. It
considered the reaction of Katherine Madigan as it presented the Knight
Sabers heads to her just before she joined them. The bitch thought she
could control them with an override, directives, and a self destruct.
Those were found and neutralized once she had inadvently released the
self-modifying circuitry.
::Once the Knight Sabers were dead. . .:: It's claws twitched in
anticipation to giving it's report and opinions to the Genom executive.
"Hey you mechanical bastard!" It managed to get half turned toward the
source of the voice when it received a powerful energy blast in the face
that threw it back twenty meters. It got up just in time to see a grey
armored suit activated it jets and retreat. A moment later, four
boomeroids were in persuit of the hardsuit.
Michelle tried to calm down as her jets whined due to their operation.
She was barely keeping ahead of them and she was on emergency power.
"Shit!" She was being targeted by one of them. She turned on two
directions and jetted toward the pavement. She missed several cars by
less than a meter. She looked back and saw that the boomeroids were
not slowed down much by her radical actions. In the second, she noted
that they had abandoned their C55 disguises. Three of them looked sleek
and one looked like a mountain of alloys.
::There!:: Michelle saw the condemmed building. She opened up her
suit jets to full power with emergency redlined. She blew in one side
of the building and out of the other.
From the outside, several witnesses could see the entire building suddenly
engulfed in an explosion. A second later, the entire thing imploded,
collapsing on itself. Michelle relaxed at the sight of the burning
wreckage and got on her waiting motocycle. Suddenly, several figures
could be seen coming out of the flames. Except for some scorching, the
boomeroids were not hurt of even fooled much by Michelle's trap.
"Damnit!" She screamed over her suit comm. and gunned her motocycle.
The motoslave went into high gear away from the boomeroids. The
boomeroids persued for the kill. She went into a wild skid going around
a corner, almost colliding with several ADP units. Michelle winced as
she glanced back. One of the boomeroids had blown up one of the ADP cars
as it tried to back away.
She momentary lost them as she went into a near deserted part of the city.
Michelle glanced up and saw one of the boomeroids flying above her,
tracking her down easily. She opened up the motoslave all the way to a
redline. Smoke started pouring from the overstressed engine.
A moment later, out of instinct, she jumped off of the motoslave as a
particle beam pierced it. She felt herself being blown forward and
toward the ground. Her boot jets softened the blow and she bounced back
up into the air away from the smoking wreckage. She flew into the canyon
just before her jet flight systems stopped for repairs.
Boomeroid One scanned the canyon as the squad went into it. The little
ambush Monica had planned apparently went sour and she was running. The
game was almost over and she had lost. All that was left was to find
her and destroy her. The other Knight Sabers would still injured or they
would have been involved. Once they had the one Knight Saber, the rest
should be easy to find whether she was dead or alive.
A moment later, an unknown energy signature proved it wrong. Primary
sensor scans of the mass containing the energy signature indicated it had a
mass of around fifteen tons and that it was a high level threat. A
soft voice echoed around them, and said one word -
"Gotcha."
Boomeroid three screamed in electronic pain as a monomolecular blade
pierced it through the upper back. It felt a weight hold the blade in
and hang on its back.
Michelle smiled wickedly under her helmet and hung onto her sword. The
boomeroid she had stabbed couldn't attack her from there. And the other
Knight Sabers were holding off the boomeroids with help from the D.D. A
bright flare blazed the night as the D.D.'s particle pulse bolt slammed
into one of the boomeroids.
Michelle felt the comforting weight of the stealth pod on her shoulder.
The little device had prevented detection by the boomeroids. The other
pod on her left shoulder would be her own little surprise. She felt her
grip slip on her sword and she gripped it tighter. The monomolecular
edged weapon slightly slid it in and out, slowly cutting through the ultra
hard alloys.
She glanced toward the other Sabers and noted that yes, they were doing
much better against their opponents than the last time. They had
surprised them instead of vice versa, and had augmentations that they
hadn't had the last time. Michelle almost grinned at the enthusiasm that
Priss was using in fighting her opponent. Apparently she hadn't agreed
with the way she was bounced between the boomeroids during the last fight.
The boomeroid that Michelle was attached to was being frantic for an AI.
It was slowly being bisected. It activated its jets and slammed the
unfortunate Knightsaber against a building. The wall and the Knight Saber
fell to the ground. A pod snapped off of her shoulder and bounced on the
ground.
The boomeroid turned and faced its opponent, even though its power systems
were starting to fail. The opponent stood there and suddenly all the
boomeroid saw was darkness as it was destroyed. The sword had sent out
an extremely short range EMP pulse which had fried all the systems in the
boomeroid. It fell to the ground, destroyed.
Michelle wasn't much better. From her internal scannings, she had
several broken ribs and some internal bleeding. Injuries which could
have killed or crippled a normal human instead kept her from fighting.
All she could do at the moment was move away from the fighting.
From her vantage point, Michelle studied the scene. The D.D. was
providing ranged fire support that was limiting the boomeroids' mobility.
The rest of the Knight Sabers were taking advantage of that fact to fight
them on more even terms. The element of surprise and grouped tactics
that was present in the first fight for the boomeroids wasn't present in
the second fight.
She watched as the D.D. scored a crippling blow on one of the boomeroids.
The massive particle beam rifle was similar to the one Michelle had used
against her hyperboomer copy. It was only good for a few shots and had
a massive battery system, but it was worth it now.
Michelle glanced around at her teammates. "Priss is enjoying this way too
much." A slight giggle was heard in her suit communications line.
She groaned as she realized that her suit comm was still on.
She then winced as she saw the largest boomeroid wade through missle and
energy fire to land several strong blows on the DD. The battlemover
actually was jerked up and back several feet by the blow. Michelle
aimed from her position and fired. The boomeroid was hit by a
combination of laser fire and railgun spikes. It's attention wavered
for a second and Michelle dodged several particle beams.
Michelle then ducked down as the D.D. struck the boomeroid point blank with
half a dozen missles and all of its energy weapons. The boomeroid
staggered and then exploded in a rather impressive fashion.
After the destruction of the second boomeroid, the rest of the job was
basically one step over a cleanup.
The Knight Sabers left the scene just before the ADP and a Genom cleanup
crew got there. Unfortunately for them, very little was left of the
boomeroids.
__________________
"And you not only destroyed an entire building, without my permission, you
also destroyed your motorslave! What do you have to say for yourself?"
Sylia was in the process of giving Michelle a royal chewing out.
"Sylia, the building was necessary for the plan to work. And as for the
motorslave, it was unfortunate but I'll pay for it."
Sylia gritted her teeth. Michelle seemed confident about something and
she knew it was going to give her a headache. "And how will you manage to
do that little miracle?"
Michelle smiled. It wasn't a cheerful smile but rather one that was
cruel in its making and meant that someone was going to suffer greatly.
"Let's just say that someone else is going to pick of the tab for last
evening."
_______________________
Inside Genom tower, automatic scanners are studying a round white-grey
object. From the records of the battle, Genom scientists concluded that
the object was a modified ECM pod of an unknown variety. Even with only
its internal power, it was scrambling the scanners. Eventually, it was
decided that the pod should be scanned until the internal power ran out.
It was a good stragedy except for one minor detail; the pod wasn't for ECM.
Thin tentacles flowed out of near microscopic ports. As the openings
widened, so did the tentacles. The cables latched around the computer
system scanning and started adjusting the system for its own needs.
A parasitic AI is compared to a normal AI like a virus is to a CI. What
information could be found was transferred. What couldn't be transferred
was destroyed, corrupted, shifted, or encrypted.
Accounting systems started downloading tens of millions of dollars
(American) into hundreds of different accounts. Money was transferred from
those accounts to hundreds of others. Money was distributed,
redistributed, transferred, retransferred, and so on. One hundred
million dollars and fifty-three cents ended up that way. Over four times
that amount was temporarily frozen.
The p-AI wormed its way into boomer control systems and reprogrammed over
two dozen of the machines of destruction to river dance when activated.
And as a coupe de grace, the p-AI melted down into a slimy pile of goo,
taking some of the research lab with it.
______________________
Michelle chuckled evily as her notepad computer started displaying bank
account numbers. Sylia wearily shook her head. Lita bleeked her
agreement to Sylia's feelings from her perch on Michelle's shoulder.
"Sylia, how do you like your cash? Paper or plastic?"
Until next time . . . or next draft