Deunan, Briareos, Lance, Tereus and I all gathered around Yoshitsune as he displayed his research on the major components of the machine in the toy store on a holographic screen on the far side of the room. Everyone had on their ES.W.A.T. jackets; Deunan, Tereus, Briareos and I wore our training suits under ours.
"What we have here are remote receptors that transmit a signal similar to the original D-Tank signal that was designed to deactivate bioroids by setting off nanomachines that disabled the body from undergoing the life extension process. The elders, when they changed D-Tank's function to disable human reproductive functions, set aside the program to activate it the way it was originally designed to. Someone got a hold to those files and some from the old Gaia mainframe. Some of these parts are similar to those used in Gaia's operating system as well. If you put those and some intermediate technical and tinkering skills together, you've got a full blown bioroid-type puppetmaster effect." he said. "We also picked up some small signal flares that were similar to those emitted by the machine all over Olympus midday yesterday. They, like the signals from the machine, can tamper with bioroid genetic makeup."
"So if they can alter their emotions then there is no telling what else they can do." Lance said.
"So that explains why I had that random outburst yesterday." Tereus said, folding his arms thoughtfully.
"It also explains why I was so cautious about the landmates when Tenari was practicing and why Hitomi's been so chipper lately." Yoshitsune said.
"But wasn't D-tank's control over Bioroids negated when the data from appleseed was used on them?" Deunan asked.
"No, they only were given the ability to reproduce sexually so they wouldn't have to undergo the life extension process." Yoshitsune said. "Luckily the Prime Minister has been quiet lately. Regardless she should be under constant watch by non-bioroid ES.W.A.T. soldiers and shouldn't be called upon to make any substantial decisions."
"So it seems like we have no choice but to temporarily suspend all bioroid soldiers." Lance shook his head. I looked up at Tereus who was already looking down at me. "Do we have any leads as to who could be behind this?"
"Yes and no. Everyone involved with General Uranus' coup de tat is a suspect and they're all still serving jail time. The only other possibility is if there was an inside man who's still out there." Yoshitsune said. "Every signal had its own individual source so I can't pinpoint one over another so whoever is doing this has help."
"Well, until we can work something out, Briareos you lead the team watching over the Prime Minister. Deunan, you and Tenari are partners for right now." Lance said, looking at Deunan in case she was going to oppose it. The rest of the room turned to her too.
"It's fine, I won't throw a fit again. I'm okay with it this time." Deunan said.
"How 'bout you Tenari?" Lance asked, Deunan's crowd turned to me.
"I'm fine with it." I shrugged. "It could be fun."
"All right. You two stand by for further orders." Lance said. "Tereus, you're off the mission. Go home and get some rest." he said as he left the room.
"Yes sir." Tereus replied weakly.
"Well, looks like I'm getting what I asked for." I sighed, fingering at my sides for pockets to dig my hands into. "Rise and shine or crash and burn."
"Yeah, well you two just don't kill each other." Briareos said as he made his way out of the room.
"Oh, we won't." Deunan said, giving me a slightly intimidating glance as she followed Briareos out. I won't lie, I did feel a bit uneasy but my pride wouldn't let that slide. I couldn't think of anything smart to reply with at that moment so I returned her glare with one of my own and kept it on her until she had left my plane of vision. When she did, I sighed and placed my forearm on my former partners shoulder and laid my head onto it.
"Well you two seem to be getting along." Yoshitsune said as he pressed a button on a nearby remote, turning his display off.
I lifted my head up and looked Yoshitsune in the eye. "I think she was just trying to 'put me in my place'. I'm not easily intimidated." I said.
"If I didn't know any better I would've thought you two were staring at yourselves in the mirror." he replied as he folded his arms and leaned against the screen he used. "You two look so much alike that it's uncanny. If you were calm and passive then I would think that you were a bioroid."
"I'm definitely positive that I'm a hundred percent human." I said, resting my head back on my forearm.
(A/N: a hundred sounds a lot better than it reads...)
"Maybe Colonel Knute had an ex-wife or something." Tereus shrugged, my head bobbed appropriately.
"Nope, I'm younger than Deunan, if her father had another daughter she might have known about it. On top of that, Colonel Knute's not my dad. My father died in combat while my mother was about seven or eight months pregnant." I said. "Actually, I knew Colonel Knute. I met him when I was a kid. Well, come to think of it, I met Deunan a lot earlier than I thought. I met her when I was five."
"I always thought you were a military brat." Tereus said.
"No, I wasn't. I was a sheltered child. My brother wanted me to be a military brat but my mom wouldn't have it." I snorted. "He actually was in ES.W.A.T. but was K.I.A."
"Sorry to hear that." Yoshitsune said softly. "What was his name?"
"Kudo." I said.
"You're Kudo's sister?" Yoshitsune said. "You two look nothing alike."
"He took after our father and I took after our mother but we both have our fathers' eyes." I said. ". . . But everything I know I learned from him; he was the soldier. I hadn't even seen a gun until I was ten, I hadn't shot a gun until I was sixteen, I wasn't any good on the battlefield until just before my eighteenth birthday and I don't think I've ever killed anybody."
"So what brought about the change?" Tereus asked.
"I wanted to fight with Kudo. So I just left when I was thirteen. I hung out around military camps, ran obstacle courses and when I was seventeen got placed into first platoon because Kudo knew I was out on my own and asked someone to look out for me if they saw me." I said.
"That's pretty tough going out on your own like that." Tereus said.
"Yeah, well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." I said, pushing off of his shoulder. "But enough about me. I've got to go train. Are you sticking around or are you just going to leave?" I asked, slowly backing towards the door.
"I'll stay," he said. "I don't have too much else to do today."
I already had my hand on the side of the door. "Okay, well stop by the gym whenever you get the time." I said, "I could use the moral support."
"For what?" Tereus asked. I gave him a slightly disappointed look before he raised an eyebrow, paused and looked a bit more enlightened. "Oh, right. Just don't lose. She's old so she might have weak ankles." he smiled.
"I'm telling." I chuckled before galloping off down the hall.
When I got to the gym Briareos was hitting the weights and so was Deunan, hers exceptionally smaller than his. The rest of the ES.W.A.T. soldiers who weren't lifting gathered around the sparring ring where a fight was in progress.
"Do you need to lift weights? Don't you just tighten some screws to make you stronger?" I smiled.
"Good one. Never heard that before." Briareos grunted sarcastically, lifting and dropping the bar connected to a substantial amount of weight.
"How much are you benching?" I asked.
"Four hundred ten." he said as he lifted and placed the bar on the rack above him.
"I'm not surprised." I shrugged. "What about you?" I said, turning to Deunan who had also just put her weights down.
"One hundred thirty." she replied as she sat up. "How about you rookie? How much do you bench?" She gave me this look that just said 'I'm better than you and you know it.' I don't even know why she's acting like this. I thought we were cool.
"I don't know, probably about eighty or ninety. I'm not that strong." I said honestly, rubbing my face absently. I tried to show some maturity by not lying to make myself seem like something I'm not.
"So how did you take out a New Atlantean air fleet, alone, with a handgun?" Deunan asked.
"I climbed some stairs onto the roof of a building, jumped onto one of their planes, shot out the engines of another plane, by luck, boarded the plane I was on and, after taking out the crew, crashed into the third plane and crash landed the plane I was on." I said.
"So why'd you make it seem like you knew what you were doing yesterday afternoon?" Deunan asked coldly.
"I know I boasted about it earlier. Some of it was by luck but I did know what I was doing." I said. "Just because I'm not strong doesn't mean I can't get things done,"
"Then you'd better be quick and smart with a gun because you don't stand a chance at hand to hand." she sighed as she got up.
"Are you serious? You've never seen me go hand to hand." I said, still trying to keep my voice low. I was dealing with mixed signals in my mind because I'm usually not easily angered by having my skills challenged but Deunan is really heating me up and I don't understand why, or even why she's doing this all of a sudden. Maybe because I'm her partner now or she sees me as competition and is trying to get inside my head. I want to stay calm about this; I don't want to lose it.
"Then lets see." she replied. She rose from the bench and started for the sparring ring. The fight that was going on when I got inside was still in progress. "When they're done, we're next." she said as she walked by, nearly bumping my shoulder.
"Alright." I said firmly. Briareos stood and placed his hands on his hips.
"You wanted to prove yourself." he said.
". . . Yeah." I said blankly. "Guess I got what I wanted. This isn't gonna be easy."
"Of course not." Briareos said. "So how do you feel?"
"I wanna say nervous. . . ," I started. "But it feels more like scared. I don't want to be scared."
"You'd better be scared. She is known as the goddess of war." Briareos folded his arms and sighed.
"What's going on?" said Tereus as he walked in.
"Deunan just challenged Tenari to hand to hand." Briareos answered.
"Should've known. You must be nervous." he said as he stopped next to his cyborg counterpart.
"I am." I said, placing my right thumb under my chin and my index finger on top of my upper lip as I watched the current sparring match through the spaces in the small crowd around it. "But it's the good nervous. Like, excited nervous."
"Just don't choke. Concentrate. Don't worry about who's watching or what they'll think." Tereus said. "And remember what I said earlier."
I looked to Tereus who looked back at me with a smile. His smile made me feel good. It calmed me down a little and even coaxed me to smile a bit. I think that little moment we had last night had been good for the both of us, being partners, that is. I guess learning a little about each other will helps us bond both on and off the battlefield. This is good for me because I could definitely use a friend around here. "Gotcha." I nodded.
"What's going on between you two? You're a little too smiley." Briareos said, looking between the two of us.
"Nothin'" I scoffed. "We can't smile?" I looked to Briareos with a risen eyebrow before I slowly made my way to the sparring ring. As I approached, I saw that the match going on was coming to a close. Both fighters looked tired and were nearing a mutual agreement to tie. I stopped behind Deunan and she turned to me with a smirk.
"You ready?" she asked.
"Yep." I replied.
Alrighty. Next chapter will probably be the most exciting. I hope I do it justice. If its not already posted then I'm working on it right now. So stay posted.
