Preface: It's been almost a month since my last post, but this chapter took a while to put together the way I wanted. However, considering that I've been averaging about a chapter a year for the last three years, three chapters in two months is a marked improvement. Now, onto what was originally intended to be the last chapter of this fic.
Another Fortunate Accident
AFA Part 2
Falling from Grace
Ch. 24 – "If You Only Knew"
Multiple hardsuits appeared in several corners of the Hot Legs club, surrounding Priss, Linna and Aoede, prepared to strike. The three females took a defensive posture with their backs to each other.
"Is it Sylia??" Linna guessed, trying to make sense of the situation.
Priss glanced worriedly over at Leon. "I don't think so," before catching a glimpse of Aoede out of the other corner of her eyes. "Can't you tell?"
"No, I can't," she said, her voice inflecting with stress.
"Why not? Aren't they just boomers?" Linna fired out angrily.
"Yes, but they aren't responding to me."
"Heh, guess Priss was right. Your nothing like Galatea," she replied bitterly.
"What's that supposed to mean!" the blond fired back, distracted.
"Galatea would have already stopped those hardsuits without even trying," she chided sarcastically.
"Linna, now's not the time," Priss warned just as two of the hardsuits seemed to motion to each other, their helmets nodding. A moment later, flashes of rear-mounted thrusters outlined their sleek shapes as they both rocketed directly for the three females just below the stage area.
Linna dove away from the stage avoiding their strike. Priss leapt onto the stage and rolled over to Leon. However, the two hardsuits didn't appear to be interested in the two humans at the moment. Instead they bore down on the inhuman being that had her back towards them. But just as they reached the blond female, she neatly ducked below their strikes and leapt with inhuman strength away from the hardsuits and towards one of the exits.
The plain grey colors of the hardsuits blurred past Linna as the two initial attackers gave chase after Aoede. A moment later, two other hardsuits joined the fray apparently focusing their collective energies on the boomer goddess. Linna sighed, a small sense of relief coming over her at the realization that neither her nor Priss appeared to be their targets. However, she tried to peer over the top of the stage to see what had happened to Priss. Unable to see her, she instead focused on the newly restored mental link. "Priss, are you okay?" A sense of nervous panic answered her call.
"I'm fine, but Leon needs help now!"
Priss' worried thoughts drew Linna upright enough to see over the top of the stage and off to the side. There, she was just able to make out the forms of Leon lying on his side with his head resting in Priss' lap. She noted the sounds of hardsuits' thrusters fading into the background noise, the battle apparently moving away from them. Taking one more quick glance around the darkened club just to be safe, she leapt onto the stage and over to Priss and Leon. Her feet made a splashing noise just as she reached them causing her to look down into a growing puddle of blood below Leon. "Oh God!"
"It's bad," Priss added surly, examining the metal spike protruding from his back.
Leon moaned , his eyes fluttering shut.
"Leon! Leon!" Priss cried. "Dammit, hang on. Linna, we've got to get him out of here. Help me lift him up."
"Lift him? Where are we going to bring him?"
"I don't know what's reopened, but we have to find a hospital somewhere."
"But even if we get him up, we can't just throw him on the back of a bike in his state!" Linna argued.
"And if we stay here those hardsuits could be back any moment and finish him off, and us too," she reasoned darkly, quickly getting on her knees and lifting one of Leon's arms up over her shoulder then eyeing Linna expectantly.
Linna frowned, but helped to get Leon upright and put his other arm over his shoulder. Together they started to drag the big man out towards the back stage area. Quickly they made their way past the darkened dressing rooms. However, they were able to see the lights of the back alleyway underneath the door to the rear entrance. It was then that Linna decided that she wasn't done arguing just yet. "What makes you so sure they are after us anyway? Maybe they were startled by him and…"
Just short of the door, the light underneath from the alley flickered and faded, stopping both women in their tracks. They listened intently for signs of something on the other side of the door. They didn't have to wait long for confirmation.
The door exploded inward, throwing all three humans to the ground. Before them stood a grey hardsuit its unmistakable outline illuminated by the lone streetlight. And as if to answer Linna's question, its arm rose up and pointed in their direction. The two women had a very good guess at why because of the twin openings at the end of the arm… much like Nene's rail spike armed hardsuit.
"Linna, make a run for it. I'll hold them off for as long as I can."
Priss' order across the mental link stunned Linna and she immediately protested in return. "No way in hell. I'm not leaving your side again!"
A soft-spoken chuckle broke the tense silence. "You are just too damn stubborn for your own good."
"Like you didn't already know that," she smiled inwardly.
"Fine then, on my count we run right at her. Hopefully one of us can make it to our bikes and then get help."
Okay Linna answered, though she wasn't. Fighting a boomer without a hardsuit was one thing she quickly realized. But fighting against a human essentially piloting a boomer was quite another. And her instincts proved very accurate just a moment later.
"One, two…"
A mental scream of pain coupled with an audible one froze Linna in place before she could even twitch. Her head spun around to the source of the scream and was aghast to find one of the thin rails from the hardsuit through Priss' forearm, pinning her to the ground. She struggled to try and pull the tapered spike either from her arm or the ground before a sharp voice halted her efforts.
"Don't move."
Linna and Priss both raised their heads to the accented Japanese coming from the hardsuit. Its weapon was still aimed in their direction, but it appeared to waver. Priss grimaced through the pain but also through a realization.
"She's deciding which one of us to kill first. You need to run now Linna. It's your last chance."
Linna's eyes widened in shock as she saw the same thing Priss did… the fact that the hardsuit's arm was alternating between Priss' head and her own. She didn't want to think about exactly what that meant, but… "I'm not leaving you here Priss, no matter what!"
Suddenly the hardsuit's arm stopped as it pointed directly between Linna's eyes… causing her own heart to skip a few beats, staring certain death in the face with no way to stop it. But fate was on her side this time…
A shriek of thrusters distracted the grey hardsuit as its helmet turned back to the alley.
"Linna, down!" Priss screamed verbally just as an explosion destroyed the remains of the doorway, part of the hallway and most likely the hardsuit too…
At least that's what Linna hoped when she tried to spot the hardsuit through the thick smoke. When it began to clear, her hopes were dashed by the outline of the hardsuit still standing upright and facing their direction. It began to advance out of the clearing smoke, sending Linna scrambling over to Priss, frantically pulling on the now bloody spike thrust through her forearm. But Priss wasn't helping. "Priss, hurry up and pull damnit!"
"It's okay Linna. Can you take care of this?" she calmly spoke through the pain to the hardsuit behind Linna.
"Wha??" She spun around and found a sleek, black hardsuit with thin red trim standing before them, not the standard grey one she had assumed was there. And when its visor opened revealing deep crimson eyes framed in strands of long blond hair, she immediately understood. "… you…"
Aoede smiled at them as she turned her hands in their direction, opening her palms and dropping two small, round objects to the ground. They clinked on the hard surface and rolled towards Priss and Linna.
Linna eyes followed one of them as it seemed to be guided towards her feet. She nervously stole a glance at Priss who strangely didn't seem the least bit worried by them. "Priss??"
"Don't worry. They are just hardsuits."
"Hardsuits??" She stared at the marble-like object as it drew to her in a magnetic fashion. She tensed reflexively as it stopped just inches from her.
The marble wobbled, liquefied, then exploded with strands of green and orange all around her body. Linna barely had time to scream before they had completely covered her whole body, wrapping it up tightly. A momentary wave of claustrophobic panic crashed over the top of her until familiar sensations rippled up from parts of her subconscious. Those parts spoke into the depths of her soul, beckoning for strength and courage. Thus she flexed her hands and arms and thought calm, strong thoughts… and instantly could see again. Her ever-familiar visor took shape before her eyes, crystallizing and energizing with lights and displays. And with the energy came the fortifying feelings of raw power and unbridled confidence.
The green hardsuit stood tall, raising its armored hands before the visor and flexing them for inspection. But past its hands, the pilot could see the being responsible for this hardsuit's existence. Linna gritted her teeth, her thoughts turning very cautious.
"Linna, you need to… unhhh… trust her…."
The orange visor responded to the mental comment and turned towards the blue hardsuit now standing upright, holding its right arm as it glowed an ominous greenish color. "Priss, what's wrong!"
"Nothing, its…"
"The hardsuit is healing the wound," Aoede announced as she strode up to the other two hardsuits.
Linna's subconscious didn't believe the boast, however her eyes and more importantly her heart had other ideas. She could see on the ground at Priss feet the intact spike, obviously extracted from her arm. And, because of their restored mental link, she could actually feel the pain subside from within Priss' mind.
"A nice little touch I added to Sylia's design if I do say so myself," the blond smiled through her opened visor.
But Priss wasn't in the mood to celebrate just yet. "Can you help Leon then?"
"Probably." Aoede knelt down and stretched out two hands to Leon's body, one to his chest and the other just above the other rail spike protruding grotesquely out his abdomen.
The man groaned softly then more loudly as his chest began to glow.
Priss was by his side in an instant, her arm now apparently restored to normal. "Hang on Leon, just a bit longer."
Aoede gripped the spike and slowly extracted it even as Leon's body continued to glow a healing hue. The bloody metal rod was thrown to the side, replaced by the black hardsuit's hand.
Priss lifted his head up even as she carefully inspected his body for signs of improvement. After a few more moments, his eyes cracked open and focused into hers.
"Priss?" He asked, a clouded, confused look crossing his tired and worn face. "What… what are you doing in a hardsuit?"
"You big dummy," she smiled, tears of relief welling up on the corners of her brown eyes.
Instantly, the glow on Leon's body cut off as Aoede sprung upright again. "We're out of time."
The not so distant roar of thrusters answered the unspoken questions.
"How many are left?" Linna asked.
"Three that I know of," the black hardsuit responded, closing its visor and scanning the area carefully.
"One for each of us then," Linna surmised.
Priss had other concerns though. "We've got to get Leon out of her first. He's got no chance without armor."
"And I don't have a hardsuit to fit a guy," Aoede added. "Although if I had more time I could come up with something."
However, time was not on their side as a grey flash streaked by the destroyed opening and launched a projectile in their direction. It exploded just inside the building, fire erupting anew in the enclosed area and blowing out the remains of the walls, igniting further fires.
Debris of Hot Legs began to rain down onto the bottom floor. However, the three hardsuits had already scattered with Priss grabbing Leon and heading back inside the intact portions of the club. "I've got to get him out of here."
"Then I'm coming with you!" Linna exclaimed, following the blue hardsuit to the base of the stairs.
But Priss didn't see things the same way. "That won't work. I can't evade another hardsuit holding onto him. Can you and Aoede hold them here until I can get Leon out of here?"
"What?? You can't be serious!!" she protested loudly.
"Just a minute is all I need."
"No problem Mom. We've got it covered!" a much too excited, almost giddy voice boomed over the shared intercom channel.
Priss growled in response. "I can't believe you just called me Mom."
"I can't believe your leaving me all alone with her!!" Linna transmitted directly and discretely with Priss. "And on top of that three mysterious hardsuits that want to kill us for some unknown reason. And didn't that thing fix Leon? Can't he take care of himself??" But as Linna stopped her mental rambling and focused on Priss for just an instant, she felt the reason why Priss was acting as she was, a familiar feeling of compassion… but not directed towards her… it was for Leon. And in that instant, an all too familiar pang of jealousy rang in her heart. However, it quickly dissipated under the weight of two things. One was the months spent with Leon searching for Priss throughout eastern Asia, and the thin but solid bond they had forged together there. The other was the mental response of Priss to her momentary lapse of control.
"Just hang in there for me. I'll be back before you know it." Priss transmitted the thoughts and her confidence to Linna through the link.
The tactic appeared to work as Linna felt her nerves calm somewhat. "You'd better."
"I promise." Priss thought out as she thrusted through the stairwell to the roof of the club with Leon in tow.
I love you. Linna responded.
"I know." Priss sent the message with sincere warmth, reaching the roof and blasting upward as quickly as she could while still holding Leon tightly in front of her. Below her, Priss could see two of the other grey hardsuits from their nearby perches. They crouched low to give chase until a large explosion from the alleyway drew their attention.
"That should distract them long enough!" Aoede announced triumphantly.
"Thanks," Priss said, before a question came to her. "Hey, were you watching for me just now?"
"No, didn't have to. I just knew," she replied calmly, before letting out a battle cry… a precursor to more explosive fireworks below.
Priss just shook her head in amazement. "Scary."
"Who are you talking to… and, what the hell just happened back there," Leon asked, confused.
Priss wasn't even sure where to start. "Never mind, I'll explain later," she dodged the question while picking a tall building and bounding off the roof and high into the night sky once more.
Leon grunted under the forces, but managed to hold himself together while in the blue hardsuit's grip. "Hey Priss," he started sheepishly as another thought crossed his clearing mind.
"Yeah."
"Thanks… again…"
"Again?"
"Yeah. I just realized… the last two times I've come to Hot Legs to see you, you've had to bail me out of some pretty tight spots with your hardsuit."
"Huh, what are you…" and then it dawned on Priss. She remembered nearly a year ago, singing at the club with Sekiria only to have a rogue boomer show up and start to blow the place to hell. "… now I remember."
"Yeah, that rogue boomer seemed to target me for some crazy reason that I never did figure out," Leon recalled painfully.
The instant she heard his words, something within her mind clicked into place. "It wasn't crazy. It was planned."
"What did you just say?"
"I… I know now. It was programmed to attack you, but not kill you. It was… it was programmed to fight me… in my hardsuit…."
"What?? Priss, how the hell do you know that?"
"I don't know! Maybe, because of some kind of connection with the sotai, I… I can see what she knows. Its like I asked the question and was given the answer... all inside my head."
"Sotai? Wait a minute…"
"Yeah, its… that black hardsuit is a sotai… the one that Galatea grew from me. We have a connection like the one that Sylia and Galatea shared."
Leon was fortunate he wasn't holding himself up. "… I just can't believe it… is that why we couldn't find you when we were looking for you? Where… where did they keep you? How did you escape?"
Deep in thought, swimming through images of lab tanks, surgical lasers and more, Priss almost didn't catch the next building screaming into her line of vision and had to brake hard with her thrusters to keep from crashing. "Leon! Not… not now, okay? I'll explain later!" she pleaded, bouncing off that rooftop and zeroing in on another one in the distance as she checked the distance to the battle. A flash of an explosion in her rear sensor confirmed that they weren't far enough just yet.
He didn't speak until they were at the peak of the next jump. "You said that boomer at Hot Legs a year ago was programmed to attack me. Do you know who did that?"
"Brian J. Mason," Priss answered immediately, the answer flashing on the inside of her mind like a computer monitor displaying the output of a query.
"Mason! But wasn't he Genom's right hand man?"
An image of Mason pasted itself inside Priss' mind and instantly several separate connections slammed into place. That distracted Priss enough that she never saw the next rooftop at all. The only thing that saved Leon's life was his own screaming voice.
"Priss, the building!!"
In just the split second that she regained focus, Priss was able to take enough of an evasive maneuver to save Leon from splatting through the roof and two floors into the building, managing to throw his body upward even as her hardsuit crashed hard through the top of the roof. Momentarily weightless, Leon was thrown just far enough to the side to be able to roll off the side of the hole created by the blue hardsuit. He quickly scrambled to his feet and ran to the edge of the crater. "Priss? Priss!!" he screamed at the unmoving blue figure at the top of the rubble pile several meters down. After a few moments, it began to stir and moan.
"Unngg… damnit, Leon…" she groaned, picking herself off the crushed metal and concrete pile, flexing her arms and legs to make sure they were still intact. "I told you not now for a reason!"
He blushed, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "Eh, sorry about that. Heh, heh…"
Priss did a quick visual check in her visor on her hardsuit just to be safe. But even as her displays sent back affirmative signals to the health of her hardsuit, something else began to stir in the back of her mind. "Linna? Can you hear me?"
Static answered her call.
Priss leapt from the hole and to the roof. She was just about to straighten her bearings out to see if she could still see the battle off in the distance when Leon pointed the way for her.
"What the hell is that!!"
The same instant Priss tried to turn to see what he was crazily pointing towards, a sharp mental scream pierced the inside of her eardrums… or maybe just her head. Whatever it was, it momentarily brought Priss to her knees, her hands involuntarily gripping the sides of her helmet trying to block out the agonizing pain.
In the next instant the pain subsided enough for Priss to shift her visor around to see something in the distance… something very large and growing larger, stretching upward and outward at the same time. It's sides rippled and bulged, appendages sprouting from all directions. And as Priss' heart sank under the weight of what her visual senses were telling her, the more distressing sensations were the internal ones… sensations of vengeance, fury and unbridled rage.
Her hardsuit thrusters were already catapulting her towards the fight before she could even begin to think about the consequences. She only knew she had to get there and get there fast.
Leon, left again in the blue Knight Saber's wake, could only watch. He felt a painful twinge in his abdomen, momentarily gripping his stomach with one hand. Glancing around, he noticed a lit hospital sign nearby… the rebuilt Kanto Memorial General hospital no less… and decided to get his injuries, however healed they might be, checked out. "Besides, I'd just be in her way anyway," he darkly reasoned with himself. And Leon wasn't exactly in the mood to try and see if the third time would be the charm by going back with Priss to Hot Legs again, especially considering how the last two times had ended for him.
No sooner had Priss bound skyward with Leon in tow than the enemy hardsuits had tried to take aim on her. However, before Linna could plan on a way to cover for her, Aoede had taken care of the matter all by herself. The sky lit up with covering plumes of explosives launched from the sleek black hardsuit.
"Let's go!" Aoede exclaimed in an almost joyous manner, her black hardsuit crashing out of a window in the upper floors of the club and directly into the afterglow of the explosions.
Linna hesitated though, unsure of just what her role was and how much she really wanted to help this sotai. She watched as the black hardsuit barrel directly at one of the grey suits just picking itself off of the rooftop, catching it off guard as she swung wildly with an extended blade from her right arm.
The grey hardsuit barely dodged the attack, its thrusters firing as it pirouetted away from the strike. The grey suit continued upward, staying on the defensive as the black hardsuit pressed its advantage.
Aoede locked a knucklebomb into place on her left arm, taking a wide swing at the grey suit. "Dammit, hold still!" she screamed in frustration.
But even as Aoede was focused on the one hardsuit, Linna could see what its real objective was. The second grey hardsuit rocketed up from its hiding spot beneath the other two and in a direct path towards the black hardsuit. "Look out behind you!" she reflexively cried, even surprising herself with the strength of emotions behind her words.
The warning was just in time as Aoede flipped over and down, just averting the swinging blade from the sneak attack. The two grey suits then converged and pressed their advantage, driving Aoede down to the roof of a adjacent building and took turns keeping the less experienced but more dangerous foe at bay.
The double-teaming was more that she could stand. Linna felt herself pulled into helping the boomer child despite all her other reservations. Gritting her teeth, she crouched low and readied her mononuclear ribbons for the attack… until the wall next to her exploded into shards of wood, glass and metal. She was thrown into a pile of debris with even more falling on top of her. Momentarily confused, her visor quickly lit up with the details of what had happened, the specs of the third grey hardsuit scrolling into her vision. "Damn," she swore to herself, quickly trying to escape from the trapping debris while trying to track her attacker. She didn't have to wait long to find her.
The remains of the ceiling above Linna disintegrated explosively, replaced by a shrieking grey hardsuit, silver saber drawn and slicing straight down at her helmet.
Without time to think, Linna reacted on instinct alone and attempted to catch the blade in midair with her armored hands. She realized her mistake too late as the sharp blade cut into the metal fingers. But to her amazement the blade's momentum stopped just inches from her visor, the silver metal held between her mostly intact powered fingers shaking and vibrating from the torque still being applied from the grey hardsuit. Linna let out a stressful adrenaline laced laugh then twisted her hands to the left.
The blade snapped cleanly in half forcing the grey hardsuit to stagger backwards from the debris pile and the green hardsuit.
Linna tossed the broken shard to the side and powered herself out of the debris, confidence growing by the second. "Now it's my turn."
The grey hardsuit leveled its left arm at the Knight Saber, rail gun ports opening up to fire on her. However, the green hardsuit didn't go with the plan. In an instant, it charged at the surprised grey suit, weaving and dodging along the few meters that separated the two. In the next instant, the grey hardsuit was grasping at cool air with her fingertips, vainly trying to squeeze the trigger while struggling to track the much faster hardsuit. "What… what happened?" the Chinese agent stammered, images of a thin filament of light flashing just past her field of vision.
Having already disabled both of the other hardsuits arms, Linna wasn't quite done yet. Retracting her mono-ribbons, she planted one foot just behind the grey hardsuit and pivoted with a spin kick directly into the stunned hardsuit's back.
The thunderous blow crunched into the grey hardsuit, metal yielding under the unforgiving stress as Linna's momentum was transformed into an uncontrollable spinning launch of the other hardsuit. The Chinese agent's back slammed into one of the heavily fortified steel and concrete supporting pylons of the building, embedding a human shaped crater at the impact site. The grey helmet, cracked in several places, fragmented and fell to the ground around the motionless hardsuit as it slid down to the base of the pylon.
Linna was in full battle mode now. Already crouched down at the time of impact, she ignited her thrusters and launched herself straight into the prone hardsuit, cocking her arm back, preparing to do what she had done on so many numerous occasions inside of her hardsuit… crush the core of the enemy. She aimed straight for the chest of the hardsuit and threw the punch as hard as she could. But a flicker of burning light from the numerous surrounding fires reflected off the battered armor, momentarily illuminating the face of the human pilot along with the female's black, bloodstained hair strung out on top of the hardsuit's shoulders. Shocked recognition stopped Linna's attack short, her armored fist pounding hard against the top of the hardsuit's chestplate, but not penetrating it as she had originally intended.
"Unnngh," groaned the dazed girl, her head slumping forward, then to the side as her eyes fluttered open briefly.
Linna looked down into glazed eyes, the glazed and very human eyes of her opponent. She swallowed hard, her mind torn between battle hardened instincts and tattered morals which still tugged at her heart. Her armored hand closed around the top edge of the chestplate as she struggled with her decision. However, she noticed that the exposed hands of the female twitched and stirred and the grey hardsuits arms began to lift up from the ground. That was enough to force Linna to act.
Using one foot, she pinned one of the grey arms to the pylon as she pulled with her power augmented might on the top of the chestplate. With several cracks and a pop, the chestplate ripped completely off leaving the front of the now disabled hardsuit exposed, and the softsuited pilot exposed as well. Linna tossed the piece of scrap metal to the side, leaving the groaning and struggling female pilot in her wake as she turned to check on Aoede and the other enemy hardsuits.
Walking to a blown out section of the wall she peered outside, checking both her visual readings and her instrument aided ones for clues. Explosions above took the guesswork out of the equation as her orange visor turned skyward to find the black hardsuit still engaged with two grey ones. The black hardsuit actually appeared to be floating in mid air without the assistance of any thrusters, while the other two hardsuits were perched on nearby tall rooftops. They appeared to be attempting the shoot it down with their rail guns with limited success however as the nimble black suit easily evaded their attacks.
Linna scoped out a path to work behind the distracted grey hardsuits, spying a dark alleyway that would work nicely for her chosen task. Turning to exit discretely out the bottom of the building she was currently inside, she nearly collided with a skeleton of a hardsuit running towards the edge of the building.
Despite no helmet or chestplate, the hardsuit appeared to still have some functioning power to it. But it didn't appear to be interested in Linna as the female pilot leapt out of the hole in the building and ignited the jump thrusters on the heavily damaged back armor. They flickered and faded, but somehow stayed lit long enough for the suit to gain speed and altitude much to Linna's shock.
It didn't take her long to discern the intended target of the damaged hardsuit. "Aoede!" Linna screamed out the name she barely remembered, even as she wondered what the damaged suit could still do. All Linna heard in return was static however, and then she realized she hadn't heard from Priss at all. But it was too late to do anything about the communication channel now.
The damaged grey hardsuit pounced in midair on Aoede's armored back, its arms reaching around and gripping the black hardsuit in a reverse bear hug. The black hardsuit didn't appear panicked though and even somehow kept its elevation with the added weight.
Linna ran back to the edge of the building and readied her thrusters to immediately join the battle until multiple flashes stopped her in her tracks. The other two hardsuits had already launched themselves off the tops of their buildings and were screaming towards Aoede at top speed. But the part that had Linna frozen in place was the fact that they had both fired rockets from shoulder mounts. Those rockets vectored towards Aoede… and their own human teammate. "What the hell are you doing?!" she screamed in futility at the grey hardsuits, her eyes wide with horrified disbelief. Unable to move, unable to warn, even unable to look away, those pale violet eyes tracked the four projectiles as they simultaneously impacted the two floating hardsuits.
The blinding light caused her visor to automatically dim just nanoseconds before the shockwave blew Linna off her feet and back into the wrecked building. More debris rained down on top and even into the sides of her this time. But even in her position several meters inside the building, she could still see the fiery mass of metal plummet downward. A few seconds later, she heard a loud metallic crashing sound, the whole building shaking at the same moment. Dread swept through Linna as the consequences of the vibrations reaching all the way inside her body hit home.
The visor cleared allowing Linna to leap back up, running to see what was left of the black hardsuit. On the way she tripped over something, catching herself just before falling but feeling a nauseous sense of revulsion at the site of part of a burnt bloody human arm at her feet. Backing away from the remains of the grey hardsuit pilot, she reached the edge of the building and turned to find smoke and fire billowing up from a rooftop below where she was standing. There was no sign of the black hardsuit, either visually or with her hardsuit sensors. "Aoede? Priss? Anyone?"
Someone did answer her calls. However, it wasn't whom Linna was hoping for. Through the smoke and flames, two dark shadows appeared from the other side in the forms of outlines of two hardsuits. Both leapt through the smoke, thrusters firing as they bore down on Linna's position in the building.
Linna swallowed hard. Her mind reeled at the realization of dealing with human opponents who had seemingly already conquered the sotai… and were willing to sacrifice their very lives to accomplish their mission. And in the back of her mind, she knew she had to make a choice… to kill or be killed. "If only Priss was here," she whispered to herself.
Just then, at the back of her spine she felt a familiar tingle, her hopes rising in an instant. In the next, however, she realized that something was terribly, horribly wrong.
A piercing scream echoed throughout the building. Or was it inside of her mind? Or both? All Linna knew was that she felt scream over every inch of her body. Sudden recognition forced her to lift her arms up before her visor only to find the very metal of her hardsuit rippling with those sonic waves of terror. She remembered the enemy hardsuits and her eyes flashed upward. There she found the two hardsuits. But they were no longer trying to attack her. They had other problems to deal with, namely, tall, thick, pulsing metallic trunks thrust upward that had trapped them both.
The images of the metal vines replayed themselves in her memory just as Sylia, Nene and herself had fought against Galatea and the dragonline network a year ago. Her eyes followed the metal trunks down to their base. There, a bubbling mass boiled up from the smaller building, the smoldering remains dimming in its center. It flowed and oozed, filling the alleys between buildings and merged, growing in size and expanding exponentially. And much to Linna's horror, the smoke cleared showing the source of what she knew had to be the source of the disturbance. "The sotai!"
A female shape stood with arms stretched skyward, her body glowing in a pulsing, deep blood red tone. And as her arms flexed and moved, so did the twin vines wrapped around the two struggling grey hardsuits. Linna stood unsure of what to do. The hardsuits appeared to be fighting back against the living metal encircling them. As it wrapped around the hardsuits, it appeared to almost whither and fall off from them, as if they had some sort of immunity to the phenomena. Aoede's words reflected in her memory… "… they aren't responding to me…"
Linna found herself hoping that was the case. Because as she nervously peered back at the glowing boomer goddess below, she felt her chances of survival were greater against two or more human pilots than one superhuman boomer, especially one that appeared to be going rogue. And as if to further cement her fears, the building around her began to warp and bubble, falling under the sotai's influence as well.
"Dammit!" Linna swore as she leapt away from the compromised building and into the middle of the madness swallowing the rapidly deforming city block. She spun around in midair to find the building liquefying, reshaping, and grotesquely forming a monstrous face in the opening she now realized that she had just narrowly escaped from. But the boomerized building had other ideas.
Two stumps slowly protruded from either side of the hideous face… then instantly exploded into two arms that reached out for her hardsuit. Linna evaded one of the claws by boosting her thrusters and shooting above it. "Oh no," Linna cried as the other arm adjusted, its claw grapping onto Linna's left leg. But the panic was short lived, rational thought led to Linna bending her left knee while engaging her mono-ribbons. She sliced through the unnatural appendage and kicked free. The other arm flew up to take its place and met a similar demise as Linna did a 360 midair spin and cut that one down as well. It was the third metallic appendage that Linna never saw coming.
From another building that was falling under the sotai's influence, a metal vine joined the fray and slammed into the green hardsuit's back. The hard blow knocked the wind out of Linna, sending her spiraling down to the ground. Her hardsuit crashed hard into a deformed rooftop, only meters away from the glowing source of the disturbance.
Linna's vision blurred, her body ached, her breathing came in short, rapid bursts and her chest pounded. And on top of everything else, she could feel the revolt swelling in the back of her mind. "… no… no, I won't let… let it beat me…" she tried to fight back against the phenomena's influence as it tried to wrestle control of the hardsuit from her will. She concentrated on the strength and power that she needed. But she needed more. So she focused on the most strong and powerful ideal in her soul… she focused on an image of Priss.
Instantly she felt the hardsuit respond to her thoughts again. Ignoring the aches and pains of her own body, she willed the hardsuit upright. She caught glimpse of a struggle above her and found the sky full of metal vines wrapping around the two struggling grey hardsuits. Whereas they had been able to fend off a single large appendage before, the tens of hundreds that surrounded them now had them outmaneuvered and trapped. Linna could hear their screams as the vines constricted and squeezed… and then the cracks and snaps as their overmatched armor gave way crushing the blood and life from their doomed bodies.
"No!" If Linna hadn't felt alone before, she certainly did now. Her eyes lasered down and into the glowing female form still standing there, her naked body perfectly still with her arms outstretched to the sky, her hands clenched tightly into fists, mirroring the acts of the vines responding to her will.
Linna's eyes widened, her teeth grinding under the force of her fury. The avenue to act was on her now and in her heart she felt this was her chance, her time, and her purpose. Without another moment's hesitation she launched herself fully at the glowing boomer goddess and reached back with her right arm. Her visor lit up with the location of the core of the boomer illuminating in the chest area. Linna's booster thrusters fired and accelerated her the last meter in a millisecond. She threw the punch into the boomer's core as hard as she possibly could, trying to smash straight through its chest.
At the same moment, Aoede stopped glowing and turned to face Linna with a quizzical look in her eyes. Those crimson eyes followed Linna's fist straight into her own chest…
Linna awoke to a strange sensation. Her body felt completely numb. She opened her eyes and found the sky dark with light splotches floating by. She tried to turn her head but it wouldn't move. In fact, she couldn't move anything other than her eyes. Panic began to flow through her veins as her eyes darted from side to side. She saw no buildings, no ground, no hardsuits or boomers… only a black sky with white splotches floating past.
"What… what's happening… wh…where am I?" she asked. Somehow even though she couldn't feel her mouth move, her voice still seemed to project in this place… wherever this place was.
Strangely, the sky appeared to shift in response to her questions. The cloud-like splotches stopped, then changed direction and floated in the opposite direction.
"What's going on?!" Linna screamed.
And again, the splotches stopped. This time they held fast to their locations in the sky.
From the tips of her toes and the tips of her fingers, Linna felt sensations returning to her limbs. Her eyes shifted from side to side and down at her exposed toes. Looking down as far as she could, she suddenly realized she was completely naked. "What??" Her mind spun as she tried to remember what had happened. The last thing she could remember was her hardsuit… and trying to attack the sotai. "Did I miss? Did did she stop me? Am… am I dead??"
The last part of the question appeared to wake the clouds again. This time, they flashed bright multihued colors, shrinking down to a pin size for just an instant. Then, all at once, they silently exploded, expanding to cover the entire dark sky in Linna's vision with a bright orange tint. Inside that orange tint Linna saw what appeared to be numbers… millions of microscopic numbers flying past in every direction. And the way the numbers flowed, with an ebb and tide to them struck a chord inside Linna.
"Is it alive?" she asked rhetorically.
An giant face materialized in front of Linna to answer her questions. Or so she thought until the all too familiar face began screaming at her.
A face rimmed with blond hair stared in apparent disbelief at her. "What are you doing here?! You can't be here!!" The face's shining crimson eyes flared in anger, red lips pursed with fury. "Why? Why Linna? Why did you have to attack me??"
Linna's eyes stared at the face of Aoede above her naked body. If she was capable of cowering, she would have certainly done so. However, in her current state, she was incapable of moving at all she found. And as she tried to find her voice to respond to the verbal attack, her emotional desperation increased exponentially as she realized that even that was now gone.
Aoede didn't appear to recognize that small fact, however. "Why? Answer me!! Why did you attack me!?"
Somehow even though most of the rest of her body was numb and frozen, tears welled up in her eyes. They collected there, spilling down the sides of her face. Somehow the wetness and their coldness registered in her senses. They also appeared to register to Aoede as well.
Her eyebrows lifted, eyes softened. The face disappeared before being replaced by her whole body, now equal in scale with Linna's. Aoede's form was covered by a light green sheer robe that appeared to float above her skin, giving her body the aura of a true goddess. Aoede's hand moved to brush the tears away from Linna's face. And as her crimson globes shifted to the side, she spoke much more softly and calmly.
"Now I understand. You didn't realize the consequences of your actions. I… I can see inside your mind and now I see the fear I caused. I should have understood that sooner."
Linna's eyes stared into this form of Aoede and tried to piece together the clues. But even as her mind struggled with the questions, Aoede appeared to understand her predicament and supplied even more answers.
"I was unprepared to fight those other hardsuits. When the missiles destroyed my hardsuit, I let my emotions take control. I let go of all restraint and tapped into the dragonline, much like my predecessor… my mother… Galatea. I didn't realize I was attacking you at the time. Honestly, I cannot blame you at all for your actions. I just wish… I had hoped…"
The floating goddess paused, tears now welling up in her own eyes. She blinked them back and wiped away the sadness there, then placed one hand on Linna's chest. "You know, I was really very happy for everything that you gave me. Without your kiss, without your love for Priss I never would have been created. And I know you've suffered terribly because of it… because of me. That's why… that's why I sent Priss back to you after my birth. And I've experienced so very much since then. But even as I traveled this entire world, I was missing something. I could see and feel the love in all the fans that flocked to my music. But still, it wasn't the kind of love that… now that I think back on it… the kind of love I wanted to find."
As Aoede spoke, Linna thought she could almost feel the warmth radiate through her hand and into her body. But suddenly, pain struck at her extremities, her eyes flashed down and to the sides. To her horror, she found that not only was she unable to move her feet and hands still… they appeared to be evaporating. Her eyes shot wide open, wordlessly pleading at the goddess above her for help.
Aoede followed Linna's eyes and a very pained look crossed her own face. "That's why I came back to see Sylia… and you and Priss. I wanted to find out what it meant to have the love of a family. I just, I didn't know how to express myself. And yet, there were so many conflicting feelings and emotions. I tried to reach out to Sylia, to Nene, to Priss and you. But all I felt was hatred and bitterness. I didn't know how to deal with it. I still don't. I guess I never will."
The pale arm wrapped in the green robe slid across Linna's skin and to her palm, gripping it even as the very fabric of the hand dissolved into nothingness. "You've contacted the core of my being with your hardsuit. That act has paralyzed your body and allowed the phenomenon to infect your body. Likely because of your interaction with the hardsuits, the phenomenon is able to freely rewrite your mind as it wants. I can't control it nor can I stop it… at least not by simply willing it to happen.
Linna shut her eyes and tried to block the deathly fear trying to overcome her. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks despite her attempts. Through the cold numbness enveloping her body, she felt a warm touch to her face and reopened her eyes to find crying eyes trying to lend her comfort staring back into her soul.
And as Aoede's tears fell onto Linna's still face, she tried to further explain. "When Dr. Stingray created the first sotai, his idea was to make an artificial intelligence capable of harnessing great power. And while our bodies have great potential, we also have enormous responsibility. Galatea realized that much later in her lifespan, but was able to give me that knowledge early on in my development. However, it is that very ability to harness the power behind our facade that is our weakness. We aren't the phenomenon; we are simply the gateway for it. Once it has been internally released, there is only one thing on this earth that can stop its progression."
The boomer goddess hesitated, wiping away even more tears as she held back the mental overload she was dealing with herself. "But I don't want to. I… I still have so much more I want to do. I don't want to give it all up now. But… I know… it's the only way," she sniffled in a very human manner, standing upright in front of Linna, composing herself as much as she could. "It was the sacrifice that Priss made to save you at the Showhamm station that led to my creation. And in the end, it'll be my sacrifice that gives you back to her. It's only fair I suppose. And I don't even know what the hell that means! Fair… what is fair in this thing humans call life anyway? That's what I would like to know… who decides what is fair and what is not."
Aoede glanced over at Linna's arms and legs noting the progression of the viral phenomenon. Her eyes closed in apparent realization that her time was nearly up. Tears fell freely from her crimson eyes now, unwilling or unable to stop them. "I'll leave you with one gift, Linna. Something that Galatea left to me." The sotai lifted one hand to Linna's face, gently touching her forehead just above her frightened, shaking eyes.
Instantly thousands of images flooded her mind, scattering to all corners of her being. Her eyes rolled back in her head momentarily before a soothing, calming, centering thought managed to bring her back to focus. Before her, Aoede was now standing on top of a fallen, solid white cross. She glanced behind her and the cross instantly shifted upright, its solid frame turning black, absorbing all light around it, sucking in the green robes of the boomer goddess. She gave one more glance to Linna, tears and fears barely held back. "Please… please tell Priss… tell her I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused her. Let her know that… tell her that I loved her. Tell her that I know she'll make a great mother someday, just like her mother was for her."
With that, Aoede let herself go and was absorbed into the black cross…
… and in the next instant, Linna was back in her hardsuit, falling backwards, her extended right arm pulling out of the arcing and sparking female boomers chest. She hit the ground, but was somewhat insulated inside the hardsuit. In the grip of her right hand lay the destroyed core of the sotai. Linna stared up into it, trying to get her bearings straight. "Did… did that just happen?"
"LINNA!! Linna, are you alright? What's happening down there??"
She heard the mental cries of Priss at the same time her eyes and her hardsuit focused on the approaching Blue Saber. She felt a nearby crash at the same time she heard the fall. And when she tried to look up and over to the source of the sound, she found herself able to move. Sitting up, she glanced over to find the sotai lying on her back, crimson eyes faded, unfocused, staring into the black night sky. Linna brought the remains of the core in her armored hand closer to her visor. She opened the visor and stared into those remains as a chill wisped down her spine.
She closed up mentally, speaking through the hardsuit's com system. "She's gone Priss. Aoede… Aoede is dead."
She felt the panicked response from the other woman but held her response inside as much as she could. "Dead? What… what happened? Was it those other hardsuits??" The Blue Saber landed just meters away from Linna, her own blue visor scanning back and forth before locking into two distinct objects… Linna's right arm… and the hole in Aoede's chest. "Is that… that's her core, isn't it?"
The tone in Priss' voice turned very cold and distant. Linna couldn't help but notice. And even as she tried to reason with herself over how to tell her what happened, the remains of the core in her hand coupled with the memories in her mind seemed to destroy all semblance of that logic. But she still tried to piece it all together. The enemy hardsuits, the missles hitting the black hardsuit, the phenomenon spreading like wildfire, the metal vines attacking, then her one chance to stop the sotai, but she hadn't known the consequences of her actions. Linna could vividly recall the images of the robed Aoede floating above her, trying to calm her, to reassure her, trying to explain a boomers actions, and then the last request, a message for Priss. It all replayed for Linna inside of her mind as she stared into the burnt out, cracked, and fragmented core in her hand. Fresh, real tears welled up inside of her eyes, forcing the orange visor to open. Linna fell onto her knees and elbows, cradling the remains of the core in her hands as the tears poured onto the ground.
But she felt a touch on her shoulder through the hardsuit, and looked up to find Priss at her side, her own visor open, tears welling up in her own brown eyes.
"She said that? I'd make a good mom someday?"
Confused momentarily, Linna suddenly realized that she wasn't able to hold all those feelings, those images and words inside. And she didn't have to explain them to Priss because Priss could see and feel them just as she could. She leapt up and into Priss' arms, letting all her emotions out onto her strong, armored shoulders. "…I'm so sorry… I'm so sorry…"
Priss held Linna tightly, trying to lend her comfort even as she tried to make sense of everything that had happened. "Its okay Linna, it's going to be okay now. It's over. It's all over. It's all over."
They held each other tightly until Linna's sobs quieted down nearly a full minute later. "I'm sorry for leaving you like that," Priss said apologetically. "I should have let you come with me."
"No, no you were right. Leon had no protection and we… we stopped the hardsuits here. I just needed to listen to you and trust… trust her a little more."
Priss pulled back and gazed into Linna's pale-violet, teary eyes. "Linna, when all this started happening," she said, shifting her eyes to the network of metal vines and corrupted structures surrounding them, "truth is, I would have done the same thing."
Linna sniffled, then looked over at the remains still held in her hand. Blinking back the tears, she opened her eyes back to Priss and smiled softly. "Thank you."
Priss returned the smile, then took hold of Linna's right arm. She led the arm down to Linna's side then whispered to her. "You can let go now. It's okay."
Linna nodded, then let go, allowing the remains of the core to fall. She followed the remains with her eyes until the moment they impacted the deformed rooftop. But the instant the remains touched the surface, she felt a strange tingling in the base of her neck. She looked up into Priss' concerned eyes and realized that she wasn't alone. "You feel that too, don't you?"
Priss nodded, then turned around to look at Aoede's body. It wasn't moving, but a faint green hue outlined her still frame.
"What's…" Priss began to ask just as a spark rippled across the dead boomer's arms and chest. Then a stronger spark, and another… Then one large arc and pop from the head to the chest…
The sudden pop startled Linna as she jumped backwards. She thought Priss was jumping too… until her blue hardsuit fell motionless to the ground. "Priss? PRISS!!"
She tried to reach over to the fallen Knight, but her hardsuit suddenly froze in place. The ground at her feet rumbled, then began to flow. Her eyes were pulled over to the now fully glowing dead boomer that was pulling itself upright. "Aoede!!"
The boomer goddess stood up, her eyes still emotionless, expressionless. However, the energy radiating from her body and into the ground at her feet increased exponentially. The energy transferred into the building as it grew upward, taller and wider. Linna felt pressed down into her hardsuit, the ground was swelling upward so fast. Soon she could see throughout upper Tokyo, and down at her feet the ground hardened, solidified and smoothed out into a level, metal surface. She was so preoccupied with the scenery that she was surprised when she saw a pair of bare feet approach her.
Nervous eyes peered upward at the now revived boomer goddess. "Aoede? Are you… unngggggh"
Linna was stunned when Aoede's right arm suddenly morphed into a sharp blade and struck directly at her abdomen. Even with her hardsuit semi-frozen, she had enough willpower to catch the blade before it penetrated into her armor. But as it was the blade impacted her gut, pushing the air from her lungs. "Wha… what are you…"
"Aoede? So that was the name given to this sotai?" a deep masculine voice emanated from the otherwise female form.
"Name? What are you talking about?" Linna said, struggling.
"You. You are one of the Knight Sabers. I have wanted to ask you a question for quite a long time now. Just why do you hate boomers so much? Why can't you be…" the male voice continued as the glow in the boomers body transferred from the blade and into the hands and arms of the green hardsuit. As the infection spread, the hardsuit's arms shifted its grip up the blade shaft… and then plunged the blade deep into Linna Yamazaki's scarred midsection. "… friends with the boomers."
"Gaaaaghhhh!", Linna screamed, losing control of her hardsuit, gurgling up blood from her mouth as she still continued to struggle. But even with the blade cutting deep within, she fought back. Focusing, she was able to begin to pull the blade from her midsection. She activated her mono-ribbons and tried to whip them around to cut through the blade.
However, the boomer caught the ribbons before they could strike. And the phenomenon flowing through its hands deactivated them, rendering them harmless… harmless to the boomer, but not Linna as it pulled on the ribbons, further impaling the blade through her.
Linna let out another blood curdling scream as the sharp blade sliced even deeper into her body. But in the next moment, her breath was cut short when the boomer lifted her body up by the saber impaled deep inside her body.
The blade grotesquely thrusted directly out the back of the hardsuit just to the side of the spine, blood running off the edges, dripping off the blade and the feet of the suspended hardsuit.
Faded violet eyes stared at the ground, unblinking, unfocused, unmoving.
The boomer stared at its handiwork, then glanced over at the unmoving blue hardsuit before peering around at the new landscape. "It appears that we will have much to clean up." The boomer let go of the mono-ribbons and then to the edge of the now tall pyramid structure. With a flick of its right arm, the green hardsuit flew off the saber and completely over the edge of the roof, bouncing off the sides of the huge sloped structure until even the echoes of its hollow clanging stopped several stories below.
It walked over to the blue hardsuit, reforming its saber back into a functioning arm. Picking up the blue hardsuit, it tossed it over one shoulder. The boomer began to glow once more, except for some arcing and sparking across its frame and into the blue hardsuit. A few moments later, the communications channel it wished to open was activated.
"Division L-42b, do you read me?"
Static answered momentarily before a surprised male voice excitedly answered the call. "Yes… yes, this is L-42b! We've been getting solid readings for the last few minutes now!"
"Then I can confirm those readings. This is Quincy Rosencreutz. Lazurus procedure three delta has been carried out successfully. I will be heading to station 36z for debrifing and retrofit. Oh, and please pick me up at the new Genom tower. It should be easy to find from satellite."
To be continued…
A/N: This isn't exactly how I pictured this part of the story to happen. I'd had an idea of some sort of 'meeting' between Priss, Linna, and Galatea II since I got past chapter 4 or so in the original AFA. However, up until a few months ago, the story was supposed to end here one way or the other. Well, after rewatching BGC 2040 for the 5th (or so) time, I ran across a blurb about Quincy that seemed to make way too much sense… the fact that he was pouring money into the boomer program to advance and extend human life… not to utilize it somewhere in this fic. And the thing that was really holding me up from finishing the fic was a missing piece I couldn't quite get a grip on. Well, thank you Mr Rosencreutz for helping me with that little problem, though I doubt Priss, Linna or the rest of the crew (well, the ones that are still alive and well anyway) will be as happy about it as I am. XP
For those counting at home, I think there will be five more chapters past this one. Give or take one or two, of course. Barring any other unexpected turns… :)
Also, with this whole Reader Stats thing, I can tell (I think) that there are a few people reading this fic. If you have any feedback, tips, hints, things you want me to see or fix, let me know. Nothings set in stone and I do enjoy the feedback. After writing this story for the last five years, I'm not exactly writing this for just me anymore. :)