Disclaimer - Bubblegum Crisis ain't mine and I'm not making any money off it

Let the fun begin!

Daley swore as Leon disappeared, he'd been partnered with the loveable idiot for long enough to know that his friend was about to do something utterly stupid and suicidal. He dialled the chief up, stabbing the number from memory, 'Please tell me Leon isn't doing something damned stupid!'

'He's after the vampire with a chopper and K12 A-T suit.' Chief's eyebrows rose at the language he heard as Daley slammed the receiver down.

Daley set off at a dead run, flashing his badge at the official about to bar his way as he vaulted the ticket barrier. The fast shuttle back to Tokyo was due to leave within the next two minutes according to the tannoy. His suit jacket flapped as he sprinted across the entire concourse and dived through the door just as the steward grabbed the handle to shut it. 'Police… Emergency….' He flashed his badge, then with trembling hands produced the photo card ID counterpart to back it up. 'Where's your computer?'

The steward gestured meekly towards the back of the shuttle and Daley gave a nod of thanks, before collapsing into the seat before the console and setting to work. His hands flew over the keyboard as he called up the roster of all copters in current service and their locations.

Bingo! There it was, heading straight to the epicentre of the vampire's attack locations. He grabbed the 'phone and looked up the number to get patched in direct to the chopper. 'What the Hell are you playing at Leon?'

'Taking down the vampire, what else? You can kick my ass when you get back to Earth.' Jeez, that determined growl bode ill. Daley grumbled under his breath and put in an all-unit broadcast requesting back-up, but with little hope that it would help quickly enough. Getting the ground units across that terrain to support Leon in time.

'Can we get there quicker?' Leon asked the steward. 'If we don't get to Tokyo PDQ there's a major risk of public disorder and major danger to the general populace.'

The poor beleaguered steward visibly paled at the ginger police officer's serious request. 'I'll be back in a moment, sir.' Daley drummed his fingers on the console impatiently, his whole frame tightly-strung with tension. 'Ladies and gentlemen, this shuttle will be landing shortly. Please fasten your seat-belts.'

Daley grunted at how hard the landing was, starting to unclip his safety harness before the shuttle stopped moving, switching his radio on as he strode towards the exit. He slid down the emergency slide, flashing his badge once more and swung into the waiting police car to HQ. As the uniformed officer drove at break-neck speed Daley accessed the bio-patch all officers had on their sternum - technically only medical could access them and if anyone found out he'd be done for the data breach.

'The chopper's down! The pilot's alive, but the K12 A-T is out and not responding!'

Shit! Leon's heart-rate and respiration weren't looking good, he was fading…. Leon was flung sideways as the uniformed officer swung the vehicle to park in front of AD Police. 'Thanks.' He managed to gasp as he threw himself out of the car and set off for the copter bay at a dead run.

'We need a Med-Evaccer now!' Daley roared at the top of his lungs. 'We have an officer down that can't be evacced by road.'

There was a brief moment when it looked as if he'd get the brush-off. Daley intensified his glare. 'We have a man dying while you lot fanny about!'

A medic visibly flinched at his harsh summation. The pilot next to him pulled on her helmet and swung into the cockpit. 'We're on standby so get in, Detective.'

Daley could see why Leon went with his high-handed style of getting things done - it got things done! It wasn't Daley's thing, but for his friend he'd risk getting the book thrown at him. He just hoped this wasn't all in vain. His leg twitched and jittered all the way across the city and he leapt out of the chopper as soon as it touched down, running to the ruined mech.

He could just see Leon's head hanging out of the busted up mech. There was blood, way too much blood spreading in a pool at the suit. 'Jeez, can you get him outta there? It might kill him, but if we can't get to him there's no chance he'll live.'

It wasn't Daley's thing, but being Leon's partner did mean you picked up the basics. He clambered up the armour plating, boosting himself up on the knee-joint to get to the cockpit. 'Brace yourselves to catch him!' He called to the two below and hit the emergency release button. Whatever damage the fall did was better than waiting, had to be better than watching his friend die by inches.

'Jesus, I think it turned his whole thoracic cavity to pudding!' The medic remarked, working on Leon as Daley and the pilot carried the stretcher into the chopper. They settled the stretcher. 'Jerry, get us outta here, stat!'

The pilot gave a grunt and nimbly wound through to the cockpit. If Daley had thought the journey out was bad, the journey to Good Hope was like they were flying through the jaws of Hell.

'How's he doing?' Daley asked, trying not to puke.

'Another five minutes and he'd have bought the farm for sure.' The medic's hands flew, setting up a drip, programming a regenerator to try and salvage some lung tissue and pushing painkillers, clotters and some adrenaline into his system. 'He's not looking too hot right now, he's alive and with some luck and a lot of skill he might not die.'

The pilot was radioing ahead to get a full trauma team waiting for them on the helipad to meet the copter as it landed. Daley followed in it's wake, dropping into a hard plastic chair in the waitin room outside OR and trying not to think about the size of the puddle of blood around Leon's feet. His gut chilled and Daley buried his head in his hands as he crashed off the adrenaline rush.

'Sir!… Sir… Sir! Wake up please!' Firm hands on his shoulders shook him and Daley blinked owlishly up at the nurse who had woken him.

'Is he…?' Dread clutched at his stomach.

'He's been taken down into Intensive Care. It was touch and go for a while there, but he'd hanging on in there.' The nurse assured him.

Daley checked his watch as he followed her and gaped at the time - Leon had been theatre for over six hours. His mind reeled from a combination of shock, exhaustion and jet-lag. 'Jeez, did you rebuild him from scratch?'

The nurse smiled thinly at the attempt at humour. 'It might have been easier if we had.'

His vigil continued, this time in a comfortable armchair beside Leon's bed as machine displays flashed and blipped. 'Right. From what I noticed of the wreckage I'm gonna guess you went to face the vampire, realised just how deep you were in when it handed you your ass, you remembered the neutron bomb in it I told you about, so redoubled your efforts to take it down before everything went kaboom. Beating you to a pulp took it long enough that the Knight Sabres eventually turned up in their suits that actually stood a chance and took it down.' He took a deep breath to try and quell the rising fury. 'At this point they saw that you were injured, possibly dying and figured "Eh, he can probably to walk it off." so legged it, leaving you to carry on dying.'

'It seriously did not occur to them to put an anonymous call to EMS to do the guy who stopped the boomer's rampage for long enough for them to take it down a favour?' He shook his head, inhaling deeply through his nose to try and breathe through the choking rage. 'I know you think they're hot shit, but they just went down a lot in my estimate.

'Anyway, I'd best get home, showered and into work before Chief realises what I've been up to. See you later.'

Leon opened his eyes feeling all floaty. He wasn't at home in his own bed, nor was he in Daley's. He shifted, setting his whole body off into a riot of pain. Through the haze he gave a grunt of recognition as he recognised the décor. He was at Good Hope Hospital again? Dammit. Laying very still he tried to recall what the Hell had happened to put him here again? Huh, he must be hurt badly, there were a lot of medical gubbins around the bed. How'd he got here? He remembered going after the rogue boomer after Daley's call from space with the info on how even more dangerous than they'd thought.

Huh, he'd really gotten his ass handed to him, but he'd managed to cling onto consciousness for long enough to warn the Knight Sabers about the bomb. He guessed the girls must have done it - seeing as the hospital wasn't a gas of vapourised atoms. He wondered if Priss had called the ambulance.

'It's that Daley again, calling about his partner. They're so cute!'

'Yeah, you know it! I couldn't believe the way Daley got him out of that flashback so easily when he started screaming the place down. I just don't know how he got so hurt though - no way a guy Daley's size could thrash MacNicholl that badly. He's the one that brought him in though, so who knows? Oh… you're awake, Sir!'

Daley brought him in? Daley hadn't even been on the planet! He'd been in space digging up the dirt Leon needed to shut the case down for good. Leon had to snort at that - Daley always did joke about the red string of fate drawing them together, of course his buddy had brought him in. He'd have to ask how the Hell Daley had managed it, that had to be quite the story! He roused from his stupor as the Doctor arrive to check him over. 'Your boyfriend only left twenty minutes ago. You've been out of it for two days now, he'll be so disappointed he wasn't here for you waking up.'

Boyfriend? How was he going to score with the hot nurses if they all thought he was knocking boots with Daley! It was going to be a long stay in hospital if he couldn't flirt to keep himself amused!