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Based on stuff that's not mine...
Written by Cyclone...
Whirlwind Productions presents...
BOOMER 1/2
Episode Two--Terrorists, part one
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Leon stretched his arms as he strolled through the streets of MegaTokyo. It had been a week and a half since his arm had been broken by an experimental (and publicly nonexistent) boomer. It was amazing what modern medicine could do.
He had dug around a bit, looking for more clues about the two superboomers that had been at the center of it all, but nothing turned up. In fact, three of his informants had just vanished.
Currently, he was assigned to light duty because of his still-healing arm, much to his irritation. Now, however, was his off-hours, which he had taken to spending strolling through MegaTokyo, as though he somehow thought he'd stumble right on top of a clue.
As his mind wandered, he rounded a corner and nearly ran over a young man with black hair done up in a pigtail. The young man, a teenager, was carrying a rucksack on his back and a little black piglet under his arm.
"Whoa, sorry 'bout that."
The young man turned, "Inspector McNichol?"
Leon blinked and took a closer look. "Hey, you're that Saotome kid, right?" The young man nodded warily. "Didja ever find your folks?"
Ranma shook his head and sighed. "I'm afraid not."
"You really oughtta come down to the station. N-Police could help you find them."
"No, thanks. I don't like relying on someone else's help. Neither does Pops. He don't like workin' with cops. No 'fense."
"Your call, kid." The ADP inspector shrugged and walked past him.
*Now,* he thought, *if I could only figure out how to track down those two superboomers, I'd have some answers. Hell, we might even be able to finally pin something on GENOM.*
(Author's note: Yes, dear readers, this is your cue to laugh at the silly inspector. ^_^)
Behind him...
Ranma breathed a sigh of relief. He had been really worried that the inspector might recognize him. *Don't be stupid,* he snarled mentally at himself. *You've only been tossin' ki blasts in girl-form. There's no _way_ he'll link that to your guy-form.*
Still... "That was close, eh, Ryouga?"
The piglet squealed in agreement.
"C'mon. Let's get you some hot water."
"Bwee."
That night...
Phil was a security guard.
In a day and age where combat boomers were used by almost everyone who could afford them, guards like Phil were in _very_ short demand. Still, he liked his job. It allowed him to legally carry a gun without risking his life daily like it would've been had he joined the ADP or even the N-Police.
He also had the distinction of being one of the few security guards under GENOM's employ. The technological megacorp tended to rely almost solely on their boomers.
The GENOM facility he guarded was a tiny R&D facility. Nothing ever happened there, but he wasn't about to complain. He stifled a yawn as he visually scanned the parking lot in a vain attempt to spot any intruders. He saw nothing.
He didn't even see the person who killed him.
A few minutes later...
GENOM Research Facility 271 was defended by a security force of twenty humans and a 55-C combat boomer for emergencies. The light security partially explained why the intruder was now calmly cleaning the blood of the last security guard off the twin serrated blades emerging from his right forearm even as he stepped over the body.
The boomer, already having shed its artificial skin, rounded the corner. Locating the intruder's heat signature, it raised its right arm and prepared to cut down the intruder where he stood.
The intruder was faster. He dashed forward with blinding speed and slammed the wristblades deep into the boomer's midsection.
A quick twist of the wrist and the boomer collapsed, leaking lubricant out from a hole in the midsection.
The intruder glanced at the blue cyberdroid with a faint sense of regret before he strode onward. Soon, he found what he was looking for and called in his comrades.
Yes. Quiet as it was, this was a great victory for them and the first step to their ultimate goal.
The next morning...
"So, is there anything missing?" Leon asked.
The Special Assistant shook his head, "I'm afraid I am not at liberty to say."
Leon frowned but nodded. Someone had broken into GENOM Research Facility 271 last night and made a real mess. Blood was splattered everywhere, and only a few of the bodies were in one piece. Until the security footage could be retrieved and uploaded properly, their only clue was a white card found in a room that was suspiciously empty. The card had three letters printed on it: C.L.A.
"Leon! We've got the security footage running!"
"Sorry. Gotta run," Leon said, then hurried over to the command post. As he entered, his temp partner, Rick Deckard, turned to face him.
"I don't know what to make of it. By what the cams say, the fellow who made that mess last night is invisible."
"Invisible?" Leon cocked an eyebrow skeptically.
Rick nodded as he began the tape.
On screen was a well-lit hallway intersection. Leon frowned as he caught a figure, almost invisible except for the faint shimmer. It was humanoid and walking up one hallway.
One of the guards ran up another hallway and right past the shimmering figure before he stopped and scanned the hallways. The invisible man stalked up behind the unsuspecting guard, and a pair of serrated blades slid out from what seemed to be the intruder's right forearm.
The guard spun. His eyes widened as he scrabbled for his gun. One quick slash, and his throat was gone. Another, and the guard slumped to the ground, eviscerated. The invisible intruder turned and walked down the hall the guard had just come from.
Leon's lips were dry. An invisible assassin. The thought was... disconcerting, to say the least. He rubbed his temples. Just trying to look at the shimmering figure gave him a headache.
The fact that the killer apparently had a sadistic streak, as evidenced by the gutting of the already-dead guard, didn't make him feel any better at all.
Two days later...
Smith was reviewing his plans. So far, everything was falling into place. The plan really was quite remarkable. Executed correctly, it would accomplish several goals at once. Even if it failed, GENOM would still come out on top.
His oily grin returned. He did so love it when things went according to plan.
That night...
The driver of MegaTokyo Bus 16 was in a serious predicament. THP pursuit cars matching its speed had been pacing it in front, behind, and to each side. He was now circling the bus on a circle junction on the freeway.
He eyed the speedometer as he careened the bus around the circle again: 76kph.
Someone had triggered a small explosion on the underside of the bus once it had reached the freeway. The explosion was precise and only took out one thing: the brake fluid line.
Without brakes, he was attempting to slowly coast to a stop as the bus' momentum dropped. Thankfully, the THP had managed to clear this area of the freeway before there had been any accidents.
The speed began to plummet. With one eye on the speedometer and the other on the road, he dared not pause to wipe sweat off his forehead.
71kph, 69, 67, 65kph...
At the THP road block...
Clemens watched the bus round the junction again with a somewhat frightening intensity. There wasn't anything he could do, which aggravated him more than anything else. The bus' speed was dropping, but at a maddeningly slow rate.
Initially, he had wanted to unload the passengers and driver onto another bus matching its speed, but when it was evident that the only real danger was the bus' speed, it became pointless to try such a high-risk maneuver.
The bomb that had been planted was a sure sign of terrorist activity, which was why two ADP patrol cars and a Road Chaser were part of the road block.
Suddenly, as the bus round the circle again, it exploded.
Elsewhere...
The eyes of two martial artists burned into the television screen. They had set up camp like just another pair of vagrants in an isolated area of the Canyons. Ryouga's camping gear proved to be of immense use, though Ranma wasn't about to ask just _why_ the Lost Boy carried a miniature TV with him.
On the screen in front of them, a reporter was now attributing the recent bus bomb, the fires of which firefighters were attempting to put out behind the reporter even as he spoke, to an as-yet unidentified terrorist group.
Ryouga snarled, "Terrorists. Have they no honor?"
Ranma made no reply and maintained a stony silence as he too glared at the screen.
Three hours later...
Leon frowned as he held up a white card. Printed on it were three letters: C.L.A.
How it survived the explosion and the subsequent fires was beyond him, but it was a clue and a good one at that. *So, this CLA is a terrorist group, eh?* he grimaced. The invisible assassin had been bad enough when it was assumed to be working alone. With the backing of a new terrorist group that didn't appear to have any patterns or even demands, it could get very bloody.
The morning after next...
"Argh!" Leon cried out as the fresh coffee proceeded to scald his tongue. He spent about a minute panting through the boiling hot coffee already in his mouth in an effort to cool it down before he swallowed, so as not to strip his throat of important tissues.
"Blech! Next time, warn me, okay?" he said, glaring at Rick, who was grinning at him with open mirth.
"Good morning!"
"Huh?" Leon queried as he blearily tried to focus on Rick's face. "Whuzzat s'posed to mean?"
"Leon... take a break."
"An' why should I?"
"'Cause you need it. This case has been driving you up the wall ever since that bus blew up two nights ago."
Leon bristled, but Deckard was right. He _had_ been getting more irritable since then. In fact, now that he thought about it, he doubted he had even slept or changed his now-rumpled clothes since then.
Reluctantly, the sleep-deprived ADP inspector levered himself out of his chair and suppressed a yawn. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
GENOM Tower...
"So, in summary," Smith said, "everything is going as expected, Mr. Chairman." He bowed respectfully to the craggy-faced man sitting with his back to the vast window.
Quincy rumbled in reply, "Excellent. How long before this plan of yours is complete?"
"A matter of days or weeks yet, sir."
"I see. Proceed. Send in Madigan on your way out."
Smith bowed again and replied, "Yes, Mr. Chairman."
A few moments after Smith strode out the door to Quincy's office, the violet-haired Special Assistant entered with an enviable calm for someone in her position.
"You wished to see me, Mr. Chairman?"
Quincy nodded and began without preamble, "Madigan, it has come to my attention that you have been using your own considerable resources in an attempt to track down our misplaced assets."
Madigan's face went pale, "Mr. Chairman, I am only-..."
Quincy's low voice cut into whatever excuse she had been making, "Say nothing."
Madigan's teeth practically clacked as she closed her mouth.
"Madigan, I approve of your initiative." A puzzled look crossed her face. Quincy turned his chair to face the window and leaned back before he continued, "Without initiative, one might as well be a boomer. Remember that, Madigan."
Madigan nodded and replied, "Yes, Mr. Chairman."
"Excellent. Before you leave, there are a few other projects I want you to see to while every eye is directed toward Smith."
She bowed, "Yes, Mr. Chairman." A fleeting smile of victory crossed her lips. Smith was nothing but a decoy for the Chairman's true plans.
Facing away from her, Quincy saw her smile nonetheless and matched it with one of his own. After all, if even his most trusted advisors did not know the truth, how would his enemies learn it?
In the Ladys 633 building...
"Why aren't we _doing_ anything about this, guys?"
"Quit whining, Nene. What CAN we do, huh?" Priss shot back.
Mackie nodded, "Priss has a point, Nene. We don't even hear about it until long after the fact."
The door opened, and the room quieted. Sylia walked in and sat down. She looked at each of them in turn and said, quite calmly, "Largo is back."
Linna choked on her soda and coughed violently for a moment. Nene yelped. Mackie's jaw dropped. Priss shook her head and snarled, "No way! No f***ing way! We killed that bastard!"
Sylia nodded. "Perhaps, but there is little doubt that the organization responsible for the recent terrorist actions is influenced by him somehow."
"What makes you say that, sis?"
She cleared her throat, "I've learned that CLA stands for the Cyberdroid Liberation Army." She paused for a moment to let that sink in, then continued, "Other than a boomer designated Bu-R-31-V728 in an isolated incident several years ago, Largo was the only one who had such radical goals in mind."
The others nodded. Nene made a mental note to check up on this "V728" incident in the ADP archives.
(Author's Note: No doubt some of you readers will be going "Huh?" For those of you who are confused, I must direct you to http://www.ravensgarage.com, which is my major source of information regarding V728.)
Sylia continued, "It is unknown whether their leader is a boomer or a boomeroid, but all my sources agree that he is not a normal human."
"Why do they say that?" Linna asked.
The leader and founder of the Knight Sabers shook her head, "I don't know. All they told me was that their connections have enough conviction on this subject to convince them."
In truth, she felt she would likely have more to tell them if Fargo hadn't gone underground after the superboomer incident some weeks back. There was one other factor that had convinced her that Largo was involved: so far, the CLA had made no demands.
That meant either they were waiting for a suitably grand, and likely tragic, part of their plan before making their demands known, or they had no demands and meant to accomplish their goals on their own, which meant a full-scale boomer revolution like what Largo had tried to begin. The thought was quite unsettling, but she did not want to worry the others.
"In any case, my contacts are convinced that they're going to hit the Tinsel City Bank sometime in the next week."
Friday night...
An armored truck trundled toward the building. The driver, wearing the usual blue-grey security uniform, grinned jauntily and gave the police ringing the building a casual salute. "Heyyy, pretty tight security tonight. What's up?"
His partner elbowed him, whispering, "You mean you hadn't heard? Some terrorist group's s'posed to be hittin' the bank this week."
The driver blanched, "Oh. Um, well, we're here to transfer the cash?" He handed Tanaka some papers.
Tanaka scanned the papers and waved them through, "Go right ahead. We've been expecting you."
The driver nodded, "Thanks, buddy!" The armored truck's diesel engine roared as he drove on in.
Leon yawned. Tanaka glared at him disapprovingly. "You should leave this to the N-Police and get some sleep. If anyone's going to try robbing the bank, it'll be some unfortunates who've seen 'Bonnie and Clyde' one too many times. We can handle this."
Rick answered him before Leon could speak, "Maybe, but word on the street says it'll be the CLA that hits, and terrorists fall under the ADP's jurisdiction."
Several minutes later, a black van screeched to a halt in front of the building. An elegantly-dressed woman stepped out of the passenger seat. Leon briefly saw a large and burly man sitting impatiently in the driver's seat. She power walked up to the police line with a decidedly irritated look on her face.
She frowned as Tanaka moved to stop her. "What do _you_ want?" Her voice was sharp and clipped.
"Ma'am, I'm afraid this area's under police lockdown. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask for some ID."
She glared at him harshly. "Listen, _officer_, I have some very important business to do right now before the bank closes. I would _appreciate_ not being held up anymore than _absolutely_ necessary."
"I understand, ma'am, but I'm afraid this _is_ necessary."
While this unusual interplay was going on, Leon was pondering something. He wasn't sure why, but for some reason, the armored truck that had come by earlier was nagging at him. It had felt... _wrong_ to him somehow.
Then it hit him. The truck had a diesel engine. By law, all internal-combustion engines ran on ethanol unless they were issued a special license, and, so far, only the ADP was licensed to use non-ethanol internal combustion engines.
"Shit!" He spun to the N-Police officer and yelled, "Tanaka! That armored truck was a-..." He was cut off as the front of the building exploded violently. A massive red... Leon couldn't tell if it was a boomer or a battlemover, but whatever it was, it stomped out of the bank. It had a blocky build that spoke of power and armor at the price of manueverability and speed.
The domed head or helmet turned to face a pair of K-12s that had emerged from the ADP detail. It raised one massive arm and a storm of bullets that spouted from the forearm riddled the two Armored Troopers with new ventilation holes.
Several men on foot, wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles and bags of money, ran out of the bank, laying down suppressive fire.
The battlemover (it lacked the biomechanical components that would make it a boomer) fired a set of thrusters on its back and took off into the night. The other robbers, terrorists, whatever, piled into the black van as the woman climbed into the passenger seat again. The van jounced around a bit as it careened down the road.
Suddenly, the entire bank exploded into a massive fireball, throwing burning concrete and shards of molten metal everywhere and causing everyone to take cover. For a moment, there was silence except for the crackle of the fire and the cries of the dying.
Leon broke that silence and roared, "What's everyone waiting for?! Let's go get 'em!" With that, he ran to his mostly intact Road Chaser. Rick was one step behind him. Moments later, sirens wailed as police cars, both ADP and N-Police, pursued the fleeing criminals.
Meanwhile...
The red battlemover landed heavily in the front compound of ADP Headquarters. It approached the monolithic structure and opened fire.
Gunfire and death cries filled the night as the ADP fought the lone war machine.
Freeway 7...
The back door of the van swung open. Leon and Rick's Road Chaser was the lead car, and they opened fire at the opening. Earlier, they had discovered that the van was armored enough to stop rifle rounds.
A large metal tube, roughly 5cm in diameter, poked out the back of the van.
FWOOSH!
Leon swerved out of the way, but the two N-Police squad cars behind them were not so lucky. The rocket landed between them, and the unusually large blast threw both cars into the air, flipping them.
Police officers behind them slammed on their brakes and swerved their cars to either side in futile attempts to avoid colliding. With that one shot, the massive coterie of pursuing vehicles was reduced to the single Road Chaser and, unbeknownst to anyone else, the KnightWing.
Elsewhere...
*Excellent. All my plans are coalescing together perfectly.*
Later...
Tanaka stood cursing under his breath. After having extricated himself from the massive near-pile-up, he had exercised his officer's rights and appropriated some fast transportation.
It didn't make much difference. The terrorists/bank robbers had driven right past the N-Police main headquarters, where practically every active-duty officer had been mobilizing.
This, of course, led to quite a large number of N-Police squad cars after them. Somehow or other, they had doubled back and led the pursuing police back to a heavily-fortified N-Police headquarters with a small army defending it.
Leon wasn't any happier than Tanaka was. The fact that they'd managed to dupe not only the N-Police but himself and his partner tugged at his ego.
"Leon!" Rick called. "Chief's on the line!"
He turned, "Gotcha." He headed over to his Road Chaser and took the handset Rick handed him. "Chief, we need AT backup. The terrorists have taken over N-Police headquarters."
//I'm afraid that won't be possible, McNichol.//
"What?! Chief, they've got..."
//McNichol,// Toodou interrupted, but Leon didn't even slow down.
"...a small army and a handful of Armored..."
//McNichol!// Again, the Chief was ignored.
"...Troopers and battlemovers in there!"
//MCNICHOL! Shut up and listen! A red battlemover showed up here and attacked the ADP tower. We've disabled it, but it crippled most of our forces. Best we can manage right now is a few APCs.//
Leon's grip on the handset went slack. *They _planned_ this. They planned every bit of this!* In one move, they had crippled the ADP, taken over N-Police headquarters, and gotten away from it all several million richer.
As his thoughts continued, his grip tightened on the handset until the plastic almost cracked. He held up the handset, "Wait. Did you say this battlemover was red? Did it have a domed sensor head?"
//Yeah, it did. How did you know?//
"I think that's the same battlemover that hit the bank. Did you catch the pilot? Maybe we can pump him for info."
//There _was_ no pilot. It was hooked up directly to a boomer brain.//
Leon's blood ran cold. Boomers and battlemovers he could deal with, but the last (and thankfully so far only) time he had taken on a boomer piloting a battlemover, it had almost killed him. It would've too, had the Knight Sabers arrived even a second later.
On a nearby rooftop...
Ryouga snarled ferally. These terrorists were nothing but honorless cowards. Ranma stood next to him in girl-form. As Ryouga had pointed out, it would be easier for Ranma to stay anonymous if people didn't make any connection between his two forms.
"C'mon," said Ranma. "Let's go. We'll get in through... there." She pointed at a window on the right side of the building about a third of the way up.
Ryouga nodded, and they both leaped down to the street.
A few blocks down...
The KnightWing landed gently on the roof of a large building, and four hardsuited figures exited the aircraft. Sylia frowned as she surveyed the N-Police building. It didn't look very promising. "Nene, scan the building."
"Already on it," replied the redhead. After a while, she began listing the terrorists' defenses, "They've got five battlemovers, a dozen Armored Troopers they 'borrowed' from the N-Police SWAT unit, several combat boomers, and two or three hundred people in body armor carrying heavy weapons." She looked up and shook her head, "The place is sealed up tighter than our hardsuits."
Though the other Knight Sabers couldn't see it, Sylia's frown deepened. While the thirty-story N-Police building was not as imposing as the ADP tower, it still held an impressive set of defense systems which the terrorists could now utilize.
"Mackie, keep the bay doors open and do a flyby. We'll enter through the tenth floor window on the left of the building."
//Roger that, sis.//
On the street below...
Leon leaned back and cursed under his breath. The damage report on the ADP tower was still going up, but it was confirmed that the Armored Trooper hangar was one of the primary targets. Only a few dozen had survived the attack. A modified Armored Trooper transport rumbled up the road. Leon frowned for a moment, then he recognized it.
"Time to rock the house," he said, grinning.
Then all hell broke loose.
Moments later...
The Knight Sabers readied and raised their weapons.
The martial artists dropped into fighting stances.
Sweat creased Sylia's brow beneath her helmet. She heard the faint hum of Linna's monowhips as they charged with energy to her right. Her sensors informed her that, to her left, Priss's trigger finger twitched slightly, just a few micrograms of pressure short of sending a lethal railgun spike into the fanged superboomer.
Nene edged out from behind her. Her own sensors told her that the youngest Knight Saber was performing a full active sensor scan on the two mystery figures in front of them. The red helmet slightly shook from side to side uncertainly as she heard Nene's voice over the comm.
"I'm not getting anything that makes any sense, Sylia. All my sensors say they're both human."
Several long moments ticked by.
The two groups eyed each other warily until a grenade landed in between them. The redhead reacted before anyone could even register what was happening. She kicked the grenade aside as the other superboomer moved to stand between the attacker and the Knight Sabers. He grunted as several bullets struck him, then he proceeded to take out the terrorist with a plasma blast.
The white Knight Saber tilted her head toward the redhead. "It seems we're on the same side again."
The redhead shrugged, "Why wouldn't we be?" She turned to her companion, "C'mon, Ryouga. We've got hostages to save and bad guys to pound."
Ryouga looked up and down the stairwell. "Which way, Ranma?"
Ranma frowned, "I'll make my way up. You search the lower levels."
Ryouga nodded, "Right." Neither of them understood why, but since arriving on this world, Ryouga hadn't gotten lost once, which was fortuitous, given the circumstances.
He flipped over the railing down to the next landing. Ranma sprang from the railing in a modified triangle jump.
Sylia turned her head to face the other Knight Sabers and said over the comm, "Priss, Linna, you two follow Ryouga. Nene, you're with me."
"Right."
The green and blue Knight Sabers followed Ryouga's example and leaped down, using their jump jets to slow their descent. Sylia and Nene activated their flight systems and flew up the stairwell to catch up with the redheaded martial artist.
At the front gate...
Leon raced over to the modified Armored Trooper transport. He fervently hoped that it contained what he thought it did. Behind it were two more AT transports. Eight K-12S Armored Troopers stood ready to attack.
Only moments earlier, explosions ripped through N-Police Central, sending huge chunks of metal and concrete raining down on them.
He pulled himself into the AT transport's cargo bay and grinned at the DD Battlemover. Well, it wasn't _really_ the DD, but a modified replica with a different paint job some of his mechanic buddies had managed to build with some squirreled-away parts and materials.
He was just strapping himself in when the transport rocked violently. He closed and sealed the cockpit, and the massive blue war machine stood.
Around him, a dozen K-10s engaged the eight K-12s that had just recently arrived, and a handful of combat boomers battled ADP Tac Squad troopers and N-Police officers.
Two gunmetal grey battlemovers loomed in front of him. He grimaced as the sensor readout scrolled by on his viewscreen. *Gonna be a rough night,* he thought.
A pair of massive vulcan guns began spitting bullets at him.
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Author's Postscript:
Hey, folks. Don't you just love a cliffhanger? *ducks*
Seriously, it was either cut it off here or end up with part two twice as large as part one.
Send all comments and questions to cyclone@citynet.net or cyclone_274@hotmail.com
Send all flames to quincy@genom.com; they will be forwarded to the appropriate people. ^_^
This is Cyclone, signing off.
Based on stuff that's not mine...
Written by Cyclone...
Whirlwind Productions presents...
BOOMER 1/2
Episode Two--Terrorists, part one
***********************************************************************
Leon stretched his arms as he strolled through the streets of MegaTokyo. It had been a week and a half since his arm had been broken by an experimental (and publicly nonexistent) boomer. It was amazing what modern medicine could do.
He had dug around a bit, looking for more clues about the two superboomers that had been at the center of it all, but nothing turned up. In fact, three of his informants had just vanished.
Currently, he was assigned to light duty because of his still-healing arm, much to his irritation. Now, however, was his off-hours, which he had taken to spending strolling through MegaTokyo, as though he somehow thought he'd stumble right on top of a clue.
As his mind wandered, he rounded a corner and nearly ran over a young man with black hair done up in a pigtail. The young man, a teenager, was carrying a rucksack on his back and a little black piglet under his arm.
"Whoa, sorry 'bout that."
The young man turned, "Inspector McNichol?"
Leon blinked and took a closer look. "Hey, you're that Saotome kid, right?" The young man nodded warily. "Didja ever find your folks?"
Ranma shook his head and sighed. "I'm afraid not."
"You really oughtta come down to the station. N-Police could help you find them."
"No, thanks. I don't like relying on someone else's help. Neither does Pops. He don't like workin' with cops. No 'fense."
"Your call, kid." The ADP inspector shrugged and walked past him.
*Now,* he thought, *if I could only figure out how to track down those two superboomers, I'd have some answers. Hell, we might even be able to finally pin something on GENOM.*
(Author's note: Yes, dear readers, this is your cue to laugh at the silly inspector. ^_^)
Behind him...
Ranma breathed a sigh of relief. He had been really worried that the inspector might recognize him. *Don't be stupid,* he snarled mentally at himself. *You've only been tossin' ki blasts in girl-form. There's no _way_ he'll link that to your guy-form.*
Still... "That was close, eh, Ryouga?"
The piglet squealed in agreement.
"C'mon. Let's get you some hot water."
"Bwee."
That night...
Phil was a security guard.
In a day and age where combat boomers were used by almost everyone who could afford them, guards like Phil were in _very_ short demand. Still, he liked his job. It allowed him to legally carry a gun without risking his life daily like it would've been had he joined the ADP or even the N-Police.
He also had the distinction of being one of the few security guards under GENOM's employ. The technological megacorp tended to rely almost solely on their boomers.
The GENOM facility he guarded was a tiny R&D facility. Nothing ever happened there, but he wasn't about to complain. He stifled a yawn as he visually scanned the parking lot in a vain attempt to spot any intruders. He saw nothing.
He didn't even see the person who killed him.
A few minutes later...
GENOM Research Facility 271 was defended by a security force of twenty humans and a 55-C combat boomer for emergencies. The light security partially explained why the intruder was now calmly cleaning the blood of the last security guard off the twin serrated blades emerging from his right forearm even as he stepped over the body.
The boomer, already having shed its artificial skin, rounded the corner. Locating the intruder's heat signature, it raised its right arm and prepared to cut down the intruder where he stood.
The intruder was faster. He dashed forward with blinding speed and slammed the wristblades deep into the boomer's midsection.
A quick twist of the wrist and the boomer collapsed, leaking lubricant out from a hole in the midsection.
The intruder glanced at the blue cyberdroid with a faint sense of regret before he strode onward. Soon, he found what he was looking for and called in his comrades.
Yes. Quiet as it was, this was a great victory for them and the first step to their ultimate goal.
The next morning...
"So, is there anything missing?" Leon asked.
The Special Assistant shook his head, "I'm afraid I am not at liberty to say."
Leon frowned but nodded. Someone had broken into GENOM Research Facility 271 last night and made a real mess. Blood was splattered everywhere, and only a few of the bodies were in one piece. Until the security footage could be retrieved and uploaded properly, their only clue was a white card found in a room that was suspiciously empty. The card had three letters printed on it: C.L.A.
"Leon! We've got the security footage running!"
"Sorry. Gotta run," Leon said, then hurried over to the command post. As he entered, his temp partner, Rick Deckard, turned to face him.
"I don't know what to make of it. By what the cams say, the fellow who made that mess last night is invisible."
"Invisible?" Leon cocked an eyebrow skeptically.
Rick nodded as he began the tape.
On screen was a well-lit hallway intersection. Leon frowned as he caught a figure, almost invisible except for the faint shimmer. It was humanoid and walking up one hallway.
One of the guards ran up another hallway and right past the shimmering figure before he stopped and scanned the hallways. The invisible man stalked up behind the unsuspecting guard, and a pair of serrated blades slid out from what seemed to be the intruder's right forearm.
The guard spun. His eyes widened as he scrabbled for his gun. One quick slash, and his throat was gone. Another, and the guard slumped to the ground, eviscerated. The invisible intruder turned and walked down the hall the guard had just come from.
Leon's lips were dry. An invisible assassin. The thought was... disconcerting, to say the least. He rubbed his temples. Just trying to look at the shimmering figure gave him a headache.
The fact that the killer apparently had a sadistic streak, as evidenced by the gutting of the already-dead guard, didn't make him feel any better at all.
Two days later...
Smith was reviewing his plans. So far, everything was falling into place. The plan really was quite remarkable. Executed correctly, it would accomplish several goals at once. Even if it failed, GENOM would still come out on top.
His oily grin returned. He did so love it when things went according to plan.
That night...
The driver of MegaTokyo Bus 16 was in a serious predicament. THP pursuit cars matching its speed had been pacing it in front, behind, and to each side. He was now circling the bus on a circle junction on the freeway.
He eyed the speedometer as he careened the bus around the circle again: 76kph.
Someone had triggered a small explosion on the underside of the bus once it had reached the freeway. The explosion was precise and only took out one thing: the brake fluid line.
Without brakes, he was attempting to slowly coast to a stop as the bus' momentum dropped. Thankfully, the THP had managed to clear this area of the freeway before there had been any accidents.
The speed began to plummet. With one eye on the speedometer and the other on the road, he dared not pause to wipe sweat off his forehead.
71kph, 69, 67, 65kph...
At the THP road block...
Clemens watched the bus round the junction again with a somewhat frightening intensity. There wasn't anything he could do, which aggravated him more than anything else. The bus' speed was dropping, but at a maddeningly slow rate.
Initially, he had wanted to unload the passengers and driver onto another bus matching its speed, but when it was evident that the only real danger was the bus' speed, it became pointless to try such a high-risk maneuver.
The bomb that had been planted was a sure sign of terrorist activity, which was why two ADP patrol cars and a Road Chaser were part of the road block.
Suddenly, as the bus round the circle again, it exploded.
Elsewhere...
The eyes of two martial artists burned into the television screen. They had set up camp like just another pair of vagrants in an isolated area of the Canyons. Ryouga's camping gear proved to be of immense use, though Ranma wasn't about to ask just _why_ the Lost Boy carried a miniature TV with him.
On the screen in front of them, a reporter was now attributing the recent bus bomb, the fires of which firefighters were attempting to put out behind the reporter even as he spoke, to an as-yet unidentified terrorist group.
Ryouga snarled, "Terrorists. Have they no honor?"
Ranma made no reply and maintained a stony silence as he too glared at the screen.
Three hours later...
Leon frowned as he held up a white card. Printed on it were three letters: C.L.A.
How it survived the explosion and the subsequent fires was beyond him, but it was a clue and a good one at that. *So, this CLA is a terrorist group, eh?* he grimaced. The invisible assassin had been bad enough when it was assumed to be working alone. With the backing of a new terrorist group that didn't appear to have any patterns or even demands, it could get very bloody.
The morning after next...
"Argh!" Leon cried out as the fresh coffee proceeded to scald his tongue. He spent about a minute panting through the boiling hot coffee already in his mouth in an effort to cool it down before he swallowed, so as not to strip his throat of important tissues.
"Blech! Next time, warn me, okay?" he said, glaring at Rick, who was grinning at him with open mirth.
"Good morning!"
"Huh?" Leon queried as he blearily tried to focus on Rick's face. "Whuzzat s'posed to mean?"
"Leon... take a break."
"An' why should I?"
"'Cause you need it. This case has been driving you up the wall ever since that bus blew up two nights ago."
Leon bristled, but Deckard was right. He _had_ been getting more irritable since then. In fact, now that he thought about it, he doubted he had even slept or changed his now-rumpled clothes since then.
Reluctantly, the sleep-deprived ADP inspector levered himself out of his chair and suppressed a yawn. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
GENOM Tower...
"So, in summary," Smith said, "everything is going as expected, Mr. Chairman." He bowed respectfully to the craggy-faced man sitting with his back to the vast window.
Quincy rumbled in reply, "Excellent. How long before this plan of yours is complete?"
"A matter of days or weeks yet, sir."
"I see. Proceed. Send in Madigan on your way out."
Smith bowed again and replied, "Yes, Mr. Chairman."
A few moments after Smith strode out the door to Quincy's office, the violet-haired Special Assistant entered with an enviable calm for someone in her position.
"You wished to see me, Mr. Chairman?"
Quincy nodded and began without preamble, "Madigan, it has come to my attention that you have been using your own considerable resources in an attempt to track down our misplaced assets."
Madigan's face went pale, "Mr. Chairman, I am only-..."
Quincy's low voice cut into whatever excuse she had been making, "Say nothing."
Madigan's teeth practically clacked as she closed her mouth.
"Madigan, I approve of your initiative." A puzzled look crossed her face. Quincy turned his chair to face the window and leaned back before he continued, "Without initiative, one might as well be a boomer. Remember that, Madigan."
Madigan nodded and replied, "Yes, Mr. Chairman."
"Excellent. Before you leave, there are a few other projects I want you to see to while every eye is directed toward Smith."
She bowed, "Yes, Mr. Chairman." A fleeting smile of victory crossed her lips. Smith was nothing but a decoy for the Chairman's true plans.
Facing away from her, Quincy saw her smile nonetheless and matched it with one of his own. After all, if even his most trusted advisors did not know the truth, how would his enemies learn it?
In the Ladys 633 building...
"Why aren't we _doing_ anything about this, guys?"
"Quit whining, Nene. What CAN we do, huh?" Priss shot back.
Mackie nodded, "Priss has a point, Nene. We don't even hear about it until long after the fact."
The door opened, and the room quieted. Sylia walked in and sat down. She looked at each of them in turn and said, quite calmly, "Largo is back."
Linna choked on her soda and coughed violently for a moment. Nene yelped. Mackie's jaw dropped. Priss shook her head and snarled, "No way! No f***ing way! We killed that bastard!"
Sylia nodded. "Perhaps, but there is little doubt that the organization responsible for the recent terrorist actions is influenced by him somehow."
"What makes you say that, sis?"
She cleared her throat, "I've learned that CLA stands for the Cyberdroid Liberation Army." She paused for a moment to let that sink in, then continued, "Other than a boomer designated Bu-R-31-V728 in an isolated incident several years ago, Largo was the only one who had such radical goals in mind."
The others nodded. Nene made a mental note to check up on this "V728" incident in the ADP archives.
(Author's Note: No doubt some of you readers will be going "Huh?" For those of you who are confused, I must direct you to http://www.ravensgarage.com, which is my major source of information regarding V728.)
Sylia continued, "It is unknown whether their leader is a boomer or a boomeroid, but all my sources agree that he is not a normal human."
"Why do they say that?" Linna asked.
The leader and founder of the Knight Sabers shook her head, "I don't know. All they told me was that their connections have enough conviction on this subject to convince them."
In truth, she felt she would likely have more to tell them if Fargo hadn't gone underground after the superboomer incident some weeks back. There was one other factor that had convinced her that Largo was involved: so far, the CLA had made no demands.
That meant either they were waiting for a suitably grand, and likely tragic, part of their plan before making their demands known, or they had no demands and meant to accomplish their goals on their own, which meant a full-scale boomer revolution like what Largo had tried to begin. The thought was quite unsettling, but she did not want to worry the others.
"In any case, my contacts are convinced that they're going to hit the Tinsel City Bank sometime in the next week."
Friday night...
An armored truck trundled toward the building. The driver, wearing the usual blue-grey security uniform, grinned jauntily and gave the police ringing the building a casual salute. "Heyyy, pretty tight security tonight. What's up?"
His partner elbowed him, whispering, "You mean you hadn't heard? Some terrorist group's s'posed to be hittin' the bank this week."
The driver blanched, "Oh. Um, well, we're here to transfer the cash?" He handed Tanaka some papers.
Tanaka scanned the papers and waved them through, "Go right ahead. We've been expecting you."
The driver nodded, "Thanks, buddy!" The armored truck's diesel engine roared as he drove on in.
Leon yawned. Tanaka glared at him disapprovingly. "You should leave this to the N-Police and get some sleep. If anyone's going to try robbing the bank, it'll be some unfortunates who've seen 'Bonnie and Clyde' one too many times. We can handle this."
Rick answered him before Leon could speak, "Maybe, but word on the street says it'll be the CLA that hits, and terrorists fall under the ADP's jurisdiction."
Several minutes later, a black van screeched to a halt in front of the building. An elegantly-dressed woman stepped out of the passenger seat. Leon briefly saw a large and burly man sitting impatiently in the driver's seat. She power walked up to the police line with a decidedly irritated look on her face.
She frowned as Tanaka moved to stop her. "What do _you_ want?" Her voice was sharp and clipped.
"Ma'am, I'm afraid this area's under police lockdown. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask for some ID."
She glared at him harshly. "Listen, _officer_, I have some very important business to do right now before the bank closes. I would _appreciate_ not being held up anymore than _absolutely_ necessary."
"I understand, ma'am, but I'm afraid this _is_ necessary."
While this unusual interplay was going on, Leon was pondering something. He wasn't sure why, but for some reason, the armored truck that had come by earlier was nagging at him. It had felt... _wrong_ to him somehow.
Then it hit him. The truck had a diesel engine. By law, all internal-combustion engines ran on ethanol unless they were issued a special license, and, so far, only the ADP was licensed to use non-ethanol internal combustion engines.
"Shit!" He spun to the N-Police officer and yelled, "Tanaka! That armored truck was a-..." He was cut off as the front of the building exploded violently. A massive red... Leon couldn't tell if it was a boomer or a battlemover, but whatever it was, it stomped out of the bank. It had a blocky build that spoke of power and armor at the price of manueverability and speed.
The domed head or helmet turned to face a pair of K-12s that had emerged from the ADP detail. It raised one massive arm and a storm of bullets that spouted from the forearm riddled the two Armored Troopers with new ventilation holes.
Several men on foot, wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles and bags of money, ran out of the bank, laying down suppressive fire.
The battlemover (it lacked the biomechanical components that would make it a boomer) fired a set of thrusters on its back and took off into the night. The other robbers, terrorists, whatever, piled into the black van as the woman climbed into the passenger seat again. The van jounced around a bit as it careened down the road.
Suddenly, the entire bank exploded into a massive fireball, throwing burning concrete and shards of molten metal everywhere and causing everyone to take cover. For a moment, there was silence except for the crackle of the fire and the cries of the dying.
Leon broke that silence and roared, "What's everyone waiting for?! Let's go get 'em!" With that, he ran to his mostly intact Road Chaser. Rick was one step behind him. Moments later, sirens wailed as police cars, both ADP and N-Police, pursued the fleeing criminals.
Meanwhile...
The red battlemover landed heavily in the front compound of ADP Headquarters. It approached the monolithic structure and opened fire.
Gunfire and death cries filled the night as the ADP fought the lone war machine.
Freeway 7...
The back door of the van swung open. Leon and Rick's Road Chaser was the lead car, and they opened fire at the opening. Earlier, they had discovered that the van was armored enough to stop rifle rounds.
A large metal tube, roughly 5cm in diameter, poked out the back of the van.
FWOOSH!
Leon swerved out of the way, but the two N-Police squad cars behind them were not so lucky. The rocket landed between them, and the unusually large blast threw both cars into the air, flipping them.
Police officers behind them slammed on their brakes and swerved their cars to either side in futile attempts to avoid colliding. With that one shot, the massive coterie of pursuing vehicles was reduced to the single Road Chaser and, unbeknownst to anyone else, the KnightWing.
Elsewhere...
*Excellent. All my plans are coalescing together perfectly.*
Later...
Tanaka stood cursing under his breath. After having extricated himself from the massive near-pile-up, he had exercised his officer's rights and appropriated some fast transportation.
It didn't make much difference. The terrorists/bank robbers had driven right past the N-Police main headquarters, where practically every active-duty officer had been mobilizing.
This, of course, led to quite a large number of N-Police squad cars after them. Somehow or other, they had doubled back and led the pursuing police back to a heavily-fortified N-Police headquarters with a small army defending it.
Leon wasn't any happier than Tanaka was. The fact that they'd managed to dupe not only the N-Police but himself and his partner tugged at his ego.
"Leon!" Rick called. "Chief's on the line!"
He turned, "Gotcha." He headed over to his Road Chaser and took the handset Rick handed him. "Chief, we need AT backup. The terrorists have taken over N-Police headquarters."
//I'm afraid that won't be possible, McNichol.//
"What?! Chief, they've got..."
//McNichol,// Toodou interrupted, but Leon didn't even slow down.
"...a small army and a handful of Armored..."
//McNichol!// Again, the Chief was ignored.
"...Troopers and battlemovers in there!"
//MCNICHOL! Shut up and listen! A red battlemover showed up here and attacked the ADP tower. We've disabled it, but it crippled most of our forces. Best we can manage right now is a few APCs.//
Leon's grip on the handset went slack. *They _planned_ this. They planned every bit of this!* In one move, they had crippled the ADP, taken over N-Police headquarters, and gotten away from it all several million richer.
As his thoughts continued, his grip tightened on the handset until the plastic almost cracked. He held up the handset, "Wait. Did you say this battlemover was red? Did it have a domed sensor head?"
//Yeah, it did. How did you know?//
"I think that's the same battlemover that hit the bank. Did you catch the pilot? Maybe we can pump him for info."
//There _was_ no pilot. It was hooked up directly to a boomer brain.//
Leon's blood ran cold. Boomers and battlemovers he could deal with, but the last (and thankfully so far only) time he had taken on a boomer piloting a battlemover, it had almost killed him. It would've too, had the Knight Sabers arrived even a second later.
On a nearby rooftop...
Ryouga snarled ferally. These terrorists were nothing but honorless cowards. Ranma stood next to him in girl-form. As Ryouga had pointed out, it would be easier for Ranma to stay anonymous if people didn't make any connection between his two forms.
"C'mon," said Ranma. "Let's go. We'll get in through... there." She pointed at a window on the right side of the building about a third of the way up.
Ryouga nodded, and they both leaped down to the street.
A few blocks down...
The KnightWing landed gently on the roof of a large building, and four hardsuited figures exited the aircraft. Sylia frowned as she surveyed the N-Police building. It didn't look very promising. "Nene, scan the building."
"Already on it," replied the redhead. After a while, she began listing the terrorists' defenses, "They've got five battlemovers, a dozen Armored Troopers they 'borrowed' from the N-Police SWAT unit, several combat boomers, and two or three hundred people in body armor carrying heavy weapons." She looked up and shook her head, "The place is sealed up tighter than our hardsuits."
Though the other Knight Sabers couldn't see it, Sylia's frown deepened. While the thirty-story N-Police building was not as imposing as the ADP tower, it still held an impressive set of defense systems which the terrorists could now utilize.
"Mackie, keep the bay doors open and do a flyby. We'll enter through the tenth floor window on the left of the building."
//Roger that, sis.//
On the street below...
Leon leaned back and cursed under his breath. The damage report on the ADP tower was still going up, but it was confirmed that the Armored Trooper hangar was one of the primary targets. Only a few dozen had survived the attack. A modified Armored Trooper transport rumbled up the road. Leon frowned for a moment, then he recognized it.
"Time to rock the house," he said, grinning.
Then all hell broke loose.
Moments later...
The Knight Sabers readied and raised their weapons.
The martial artists dropped into fighting stances.
Sweat creased Sylia's brow beneath her helmet. She heard the faint hum of Linna's monowhips as they charged with energy to her right. Her sensors informed her that, to her left, Priss's trigger finger twitched slightly, just a few micrograms of pressure short of sending a lethal railgun spike into the fanged superboomer.
Nene edged out from behind her. Her own sensors told her that the youngest Knight Saber was performing a full active sensor scan on the two mystery figures in front of them. The red helmet slightly shook from side to side uncertainly as she heard Nene's voice over the comm.
"I'm not getting anything that makes any sense, Sylia. All my sensors say they're both human."
Several long moments ticked by.
The two groups eyed each other warily until a grenade landed in between them. The redhead reacted before anyone could even register what was happening. She kicked the grenade aside as the other superboomer moved to stand between the attacker and the Knight Sabers. He grunted as several bullets struck him, then he proceeded to take out the terrorist with a plasma blast.
The white Knight Saber tilted her head toward the redhead. "It seems we're on the same side again."
The redhead shrugged, "Why wouldn't we be?" She turned to her companion, "C'mon, Ryouga. We've got hostages to save and bad guys to pound."
Ryouga looked up and down the stairwell. "Which way, Ranma?"
Ranma frowned, "I'll make my way up. You search the lower levels."
Ryouga nodded, "Right." Neither of them understood why, but since arriving on this world, Ryouga hadn't gotten lost once, which was fortuitous, given the circumstances.
He flipped over the railing down to the next landing. Ranma sprang from the railing in a modified triangle jump.
Sylia turned her head to face the other Knight Sabers and said over the comm, "Priss, Linna, you two follow Ryouga. Nene, you're with me."
"Right."
The green and blue Knight Sabers followed Ryouga's example and leaped down, using their jump jets to slow their descent. Sylia and Nene activated their flight systems and flew up the stairwell to catch up with the redheaded martial artist.
At the front gate...
Leon raced over to the modified Armored Trooper transport. He fervently hoped that it contained what he thought it did. Behind it were two more AT transports. Eight K-12S Armored Troopers stood ready to attack.
Only moments earlier, explosions ripped through N-Police Central, sending huge chunks of metal and concrete raining down on them.
He pulled himself into the AT transport's cargo bay and grinned at the DD Battlemover. Well, it wasn't _really_ the DD, but a modified replica with a different paint job some of his mechanic buddies had managed to build with some squirreled-away parts and materials.
He was just strapping himself in when the transport rocked violently. He closed and sealed the cockpit, and the massive blue war machine stood.
Around him, a dozen K-10s engaged the eight K-12s that had just recently arrived, and a handful of combat boomers battled ADP Tac Squad troopers and N-Police officers.
Two gunmetal grey battlemovers loomed in front of him. He grimaced as the sensor readout scrolled by on his viewscreen. *Gonna be a rough night,* he thought.
A pair of massive vulcan guns began spitting bullets at him.
***********************************************************************
Author's Postscript:
Hey, folks. Don't you just love a cliffhanger? *ducks*
Seriously, it was either cut it off here or end up with part two twice as large as part one.
Send all comments and questions to cyclone@citynet.net or cyclone_274@hotmail.com
Send all flames to quincy@genom.com; they will be forwarded to the appropriate people. ^_^
This is Cyclone, signing off.