Bubblegum Crisis Post 2040 Fanfic Series

Bubblegum Crisis Post 2040 File 1: Dominant Species

Part 5: Blood Trails

Chapter 55: Dangerous Toys

by P. Kristen Enos (bgcpost2040@aol.com)

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A Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 English Dub Version Fanfic. All rights belong to AIC, ADV Films and the other creative powers that be. I just want credit for writing the story. Contains spoilers! Rated PG13. Yuri warning! Nothing in here should be a shock if you've watched the episodes and paid attention. All I'm doing is filling in the gaps with my own interpretation of events! Special thanks to Greenegret for betaing!

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The shrill beep of the alarm pierced the otherwise peaceful atmosphere of the Silky Doll building, causing Sylia to sit bolt upright in bed. Of course, that action also caused her to wince in pain.

Nigel also sat upright, first focusing on the alarm and then on his lover's pained grimace.

"That's the boomer sensor alarm!" Sylia hissed between gritted teeth, trying to bring their focus back to the more important matter at hand. "It would only go off if a boomer tried to come in the building!"

"Or leave."

They looked at each other as they suddenly had the same thought. Then there was a flurry of tossed bedsheets and blankets as Sylia grabbed her robe and Nigel pulled on his boxer shorts and t-shirt.

"Mistress Sylia?! Master Nigel?" an alarmed Henderson questioned when he ran into them in the hallway.

"Where's Sylvie?!" she demanded.

The butler looked bewildered and then horrified at the obvious reasoning behind the question. "I-I haven't seen her in half an hour or so. She was going to take some cookies to Priss."

"She never came by!" Priss blurted as she ran up to them.

After a brief exchange of horrified looks, the four of them then rushed to the freight elevator, which would be the most direct route from the upper floors down to the pit.

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"They're completely damaged," Nigel yelled up to the command booth upon finishing his brief inspection of the hardsuit frames and inner-metal pumps. "There's no way to do a quick fix on these!"

Sylia registered his words with an even darker frown as she frantically typed various commands into the main computer.

"What are you looking for?" an anxious Priss asked over her shoulder. She wanted to do something - anything - but the lack of a suitable outlet was driving her nuts. She did the only thing she could do, which was shove a cookie in her mouth from the tray that had been left behind on the command chair.

"DAMN IT!" Sylia yelled as she smashed her fist into the keyboard, sending plastic pieces flying as some gouged into her hand. Her body trembled with rage. "She wiped out the kill-switch commands!"

"Hey, everyone, what's going on?" Nene asked as she and Mackey rushed in. "Mackey heard the alarms when we were coming up the block."

Sylia paced frantically as she ran her hands through her hair, not at all noticing the smear of blood through her strands. "Come on, Sylia, THINK! There's got to be a rational explanation for this!"

Priss looked at the confused newcomers and answered simply, "Sylvie's gone and she's sabotaged the hardsuit equipment as well as wiped out her kill-switch commands from the main computer."

The horrified and bewildered reactions came as expected, but so did the frantic mental churning for some sort of solution to the problem.

"Do you think she was called back to Genom?" Nene asked anyone who would give her a response.

Sylia shook her head as she juggled the question with her own thought process. "It's possible but extremely unlikely. We buffered this building from receiving foreign transmissions just as Sylvie couldn't send signals out. Unless Genom managed to deploy a special frequency that we haven't been able to dampen, she shouldn't have heard anything. But that wouldn't make sense of why she would damage the hardsuits and wipe out the kill-switch commands.

"She had complete freedom within the building. We wouldn't have noticed her absence by the time she reached Genom, and by then she would have been 'safe' from anything we held over her. She didn't know about the boomer sensors so she never would have known her departure from the building would have been noticed right away. She purposefully took the time to sabotage the suits and the kill-switch commands. The only reason why she would do that would be that she considered them necessary precautions to whatever she was planning. --"

Nene's eyes suddenly bugged out as she realized where Sylia was headed. "Her direct command mode! Those extra algorithms we just uncovered the other day! Oh my God!"

"Someone speak Japanese!" Priss practically yelled for clarification as Nigel appeared at the doorway as well.

Nene complied but spoke at the speed of a machine firing, "Priss, one of the key parts of Sylvie's combat programming is that when she is in direct command mode, she had enough intelligence to assess a situation and remove any obstacles that might prevent her from completing her task. She apparently considered the hardsuits and the kill-switch command to be direct threats to be eliminated before she proceeded."

Priss was trying to process what Nene had just said and clearly started to form an unpleasant picture, "The only direct command left that we know of is her order to assassinate Linna! But, it makes no sense why it would be triggered now after all this time!"

"It would if she suddenly found out where Linna is!" Sylia insisted. Then she stared at Priss and demanded, "Did you call Linna this morning? Sylvie has frequency sensors that could have picked up the signal and traced the call!"

Priss eyes widened in angry disbelief. "That's fucking nuts! I called Linna like I do every morning! If that made a difference, then why didn't Sylvie react before?!"

"Because she didn't have a crush on you before!" Sylia yelled in desperation.

"WHAT?!" a shocked Priss blurted.

"The point is that we have to stop her somehow if she really is after Linna!" Mackey pointed out as he logged into one of the other terminals. "She couldn't have gotten far if she's on foot."

"Don't count on that," Nigel grimly pointed out. He had also logged into one of the other terminals and had been checking the various shots from the security cameras. He tapped on the view of the garage. "Priss's bike is missing."

"WHAT?!" the singer blurted for the second time in as many minutes. "How the hell does she know how to ride my bike?!"

"She's programmed to fly a jet fighter! What do you think?!" Sylia angrily pointed out, though it was it clear that her rage was primarly at herself and the situation.

Then she steeled herself and ordered, "Henderson, call Reika and tell her to clear the compound as soon as possible, with evacuation priority on Linna and the children. Nigel and Mackey, try to see if you can capture Sylvie's signal and pinpoint her location. Her direct command mode also means she'd emit a tracking signal back to Genom. Also keep an eye on Genom's communications systems and let me know if they pick her up. Priss and Nene, we've got a last resort option to stop her down in my private lab. Let's go!"

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"I should be returning by the time we're ready to deliver the first version models," Madigan reported to Quincy as they were in his office. She sat in the chair in front of his desk while he leaned against the window with a glass of scotch in his hand. "Dr. Yuri has proven quite capable of running his team with minimal supervision. However, I will continue to call and check on his status."

Quincy shook his head and said, "Don't bother. Enjoy your vacation. I'll handle -"

Suddenly the phone in Quincy's vest pocket went off, as did Madigan's, which was on her belt.

The two executives paused and looked at each other. Quincy answered his first and signalled to Madigan to have her call go to voicemail.

"This is Quincy... What?!" the man's tone immediately turned into pleased surprise. Realizing that Madigan's curiosity was piqued, he repeated the information for her sake, "You've suddenly registered Sylvie's signal, and she's still within the city?... But she's heading west as if she's in some sort of high speed vehicle?... Dispatch the other girls by helicopter and figure out a rendezvous point. I want her brought back as soon as possible and in one piece! Understood?! I'm heading down to the control room now!"

The President and CEO of Genom Corporation hung up the phone with an immensely pleased smile. "Well? You can go off on your vacation or stick around for a bit to see how this turns out."

Madigan smiled and stood. "This is one show I wouldn't want to miss."

-- End Chapter 55 --

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