Episode 2: Burn Up

Some six weeks later, Sean was relaxing at home on the VR
Game machine when Iczel called out to him. {*Sean!* We have
a problem!}

{Yeah, Iczel, what is it? Boomer on the loose again?} Sean
shut down the game and leaned back to pull off the VR hood.
[I've dealt with the toughest Boomers that could sneak
around in a city, and even GENOM shouldn't be stupid enough
to let Battle models loose here, so I don't understand the
worry in Iczel's tone,] he thought to himself.

Iczel's sending mocked his sense of security. {I gather from
the A.D. Police frequencies that somehow two BU-12-B Battle
Boomers have gone amuck during transit! They broke out of a
transport truck in Tinsel City and the ADP Tactical Squads
can't stop them!}

{WHAT?!} Sean thought eloquently. {Dammit! Battle Boomers
aren't even supposed to come within city limits, much less
go nuts in the middle of town! Boy, some heads had better
roll for this or I'll lose all faith in the ADP! Oh, never
mind that now.} "CHARGING UP!"

*** ***

A few minutes later, Sean, in the Iczelion armor, was
hurtling toward the site of the conflict, listening to the
ADP broadcasts (Iczel having broken their codes while still
working with Nagisa.) He was barely two blocks from the
Boomers when he heard a chopper pilot mention dropping K-11
Armored Troopers. {Oh, man, Iczel, two 12-B's will slaughter
K-11's! Swords, please.} His energy blades dropped into his
hands as the Boomers came into view. One fired its right-arm
railgun at him, but he dodged easily. [Two quick slashes.
This ends *right* *now,*] he thought. He flew between the
Boomers at high speed and sliced out with his swords as he
passed.

Both slashes skittered off the head armor without penetrating.
{WHAT THE!? Iczel, what the hell is going on?} Sean had
seen the swords effortlessly cut through a foot of steel,
which was far thicker than the head armor of the BU-12-B.

Iczel took a moment to respond. {Scanning... Sean, the armor
plate on these things is some kind of metal/ceramic composite.
It's designed, I'd guess, to fend off energy weapons like the
laser cannons of the modern battlefield. Since our swords use
the 'cutting torch' high-energy method of penetrating
matter...}

{...They can't penetrate the heat-resistant armor. Just
wonderful.} Sean finished. {Worse, since all our weapons are
energy-based, we can't hurt it that much, can we?}

{Well... not through the armor, no. We can still damage them,
we'll just have to strike for vulnerable points.} Iczel
replied. Sean frowned, then twisted in the air to both dodge
the machinegun fire from the two Boomers and get clear of the
charging K-11's. He climbed to rooftop level as the four
battle machines - two piloted, two not - opened fire on each
other. Then he winced as one of those apple-sized railgun
slugs clipped a K-11 and it spun to the ground, the pilot
disoriented.

[Hey, hold that thought. Apple-sized bullet = apple-sized
barrel = vulnerable point!] Sean thought in a sudden
inspiration. Iczel 'sent' a worried cry as Sean dove directly
into the line of fire. He pitched his right-hand sword in a
throw as he passed the Boomer, then braked to a halt and
looked back. The sword was nowhere to be seen.

The K-11 pilot was less than impressed. "Hey, man, was that
supposed to do something?" he asked over his loudspeaker.

"Just watch," Sean responded. A moment later, the sword,
which Sean had thrown up the railgun's barrel, detonated and
took the BU-12-B's gun arm off at the elbow. "YES! We have
achieved unilateral disarmament!" Sean cheered. The Armored
Trooper was speechless. Sean called to him, "Okay! You take
this guy down while I go see about his brother!" and took
off, Iczel directing him to the running battle that the other
K-11 and BU-12-B were fighting.

*** ***

Sylia was crouched behind the counter of the Silky Doll
lingerie shop - her official business and cover location for
the Knight Sabers' headquarters. A volley from a K-11's
autocannon had thrown the last BU-12-B Battle Boomer through
the store's front window, and without her hardsuit, there
was little she could do about it. The war machine spun in a
circle, firing its machinegun as it went, and the shower of
bullets wrecked the shop. It then fired its railgun at its
ADP tormentor, scoring a hit that knocked the Armored Trooper
flat on its back. Malevolently the Boomer moved out into the
street again, then turned toward the shop once more...

"*Hey!* A good friend of mine shops here, you jerk!" came a
cry from above. The voice was higher, less mature than it
usually sounded, but Sylia's ice-clear memory identified the
speaker as the mysterious Iczelion - an idea that was
verified a moment later. The familiar yellow-and-red figure
crashed down upon the Boomer, using his spherical force
field like a battering ram and damaging the BU-12-B's sensor
booms and flight system. He threw the Armored Trooper a
thumbs-up as the Boomer limped off, and the officer returned
the sign as he moved in pursuit. Iczelion, meanwhile, looked
around the ruined shop. "Damn," Sylia heard him mutter, "the
place is a wreck. I hope the owners have insurance." As she
watched, he moved out to the street, then lifted up on his
odd thrustless flight system and moved off after the Boomer.

After a few moments, she and Mackie emerged from hiding.
Sylia told her brother, "I believe that was the first time
he's spoken in his natural voice. He sounds very young,
perhaps Nene's age. When we can spare the time, correlate
which of our shop's clients know capable fighters in that
age group. Perhaps we can find out who this Iczelion is."
The faint hope of allying with the mystery man and his
supertech armor was hovering in the back of her mind, so she
didn't notice how pensive Mackie looked. He didn't have his
sister's perfect memory, but he had found the voice familiar
too. He looked up as Sylia went back into command mode.

"For now, though, Mackie, the Boomer is out of our hands.
Start cleaning up the debris," she said with a sigh, "and
have the others start helping when they arrive."

*** ***

Sean/Iczelion limped back into the basement of his house
through the secret sewer tunnel Iczel used. He was feeling
lousy. First, a railgun slug from the second Boomer had hit
his outer shield, the spherical one, and had not only
hurled him back into a highway support pillar, it had
_penetrated_ the shield. If the shot had been a foot to the
right, it would have hit him, and he would be nursing far
worse injuries than bruised ribs. Then, while he was
stunned, the second K-11 had moved into close quarters with
the BU-12-B and both suit and Boomer were destroyed. The
Armored Trooper pilot had been killed. Sean kept replaying
the last minutes of the battle in his mind, looking for
something he could have done to save the pilot.

{Sean, you mustn't start feeling guilt for everything you
can't prevent,} Iczel sent to her partner. {If you do, you
might as well worry about all the world's problems at once.
If we hadn't been there, many more people would have died
tonight. Be happy for those who lived!}

Sean gave a small smile as Iczel separated from him and
reassembled herself. "You sound pretty wise. Do you read
about philosophy on the Internet or something?"

Iczel chose to reply audibly. "No, I went through the same
problem with Nagisa. I just used the argument that worked
with her." Sean burst out laughing. When he stopped, he was
in much better spirits, and wobbled upstairs to grab a
shower. Fighting Battle Boomers was sweaty work!

*** ***

It was the next day that everything went to pieces. Putting
it all back together would take some time and would change
Sean's life forever. It started when Iczel called to Sean...

*** ***

{Sean!} The voice of his partner echoed in Sean's head. {I
just picked up the Knight Sabers again, in the same vehicle
they used on the Kawasaki factory attack! They're headed for
the GENOM Tower area again!}

Sean cursed under his breath - he was still sore from
yesterday's battle, and it looked like this could be serious.
The last time Iczel had picked up the Knight Sabers like
this, it had taken Iczelion and the Knight Sabers' combined
efforts to destroy a Boomer built to take over the
U.S.S.D.'s network of orbital particle-beam weapons. {I'm on
my way down, Iczel. Keep tracking them and try to project a
destination - we'll see if we can't beat them there.} As he
reached the basement of his home, he cried out, "CHARGING
UP!"

*** ***

Sylia and Nene, in their Knight Saber hardsuits, flew up to
the summit of GENOM Tower, to see Brian J. Mason in an
unfamiliar dark gray Armored Trooper battlesuit, with his
55-C bodyguard beside him. Sylia called out to her father's
killer.

"This is the end of your little ambitions, Mr. Mason. You
look like you've resigned yourself to that."

Mason gave her a savage grin as his helmet closed. "What you
see is the look of the victor. We stand upon the heights of
GENOM, that look forward to my reign... and to becoming your
gravesite." The 55-C set itself to charge at Nene, and
Mason's suit raised one arm in a hand signal. Sylia tensed.
This was a trap!

In response to Mason's hand signal, the broken corpses of
two BU-55-C's with sonic cannon chest units flew over an
elevator shed to crash at Mason's feet. A voice echoed from
behind the shed, "If you're calling for your backup band, I
think they're - ah - 'indisposed'. You'll have to play this
number solo." Iczelion, glowing faceplate and all, leaped
up onto the shed's roof with his energy blades out.

Sylia had seldom been so glad to see someone unexpected. She
remembered the sonic weapons carried by the two Boomers he'd
destroyed; he'd saved them when the high-pitched screech
emitted from four of those Boomers had left the Knight
Sabers helpless. Facing an unknown battlesuit in the kind of
intense pain those weapons caused would have been fatal.

Mason whirled, facing the new combatant as Iczelion spoke.
"You, I take it, are Mr. Mason. Your ambush is history and
you're outnumbered three to two. You should surrender now."

Mason snarled. "You! You spoiled my plans twice, *little
lion*, but not a third time. My battlesuit is the pinnacle
of GENOM technology, and you cannot hurt it. I will destroy
you!" With that, he whirled to aim his right arm at Sylia,
firing two cannons that popped out of an armored compartment
on his wrist. Sylia, expecting an attack, dodged, and the
battle began...

*** ***

Sean, despite his confident air, was concerned. He'd arrived
only minutes before the Knight Sabers - well, two of them
anyway - and had rushed madly to destroy the sonic 55-C's
before the battle began. His ribs were bothering him, and
Iczel had scanned the armor on the battlesuit that the GENOM
goon was using. It was the same composite as a BU-12-B's
armor, meaning that none of Iczelion's weapons could hurt it,
and from the last comment, the pilot knew it, too. Worse,
those pop-open cannons made the sort of disarming shot he'd
used yesterday impossibly hard. [I'll just have to let the
Knight Sabers handle him,] Sean thought. Then, noticing that
the BU-55-C had the pink-and-blue Saber in trouble, he
leaped down to help.

The Boomer had knocked down the hardsuit and was raising a
fist over it as Sean arrived, cutting the Boomer in half
with a diagonal swing of a beam sword. He told it, "I've
said it before, and I'll say it again;" and the suit's pilot
joined him to chorus "*That is NO way to treat a lady!*"
Sean cracked up laughing, as did the smallest Knight Saber,
while the Boomer collapsed. Sean turned to her. "We have to
stop meeting like this! Why are you here after this Mason
guy, anyway?"

She paused for a second. "Well, he's behind some of the
Boomer problems we've been having in MegaTokyo, and... OH
NO!!" Sean spun around at her scream to see the white
Saber - [I have to find out names or handles, I can't keep
going by color,] Sean thought - land on a ledge that the
gray armor shot out from under her. Then, as her jet wings
sprang open, a second shot from the wrist cannons blew one
wing off her armor. She landed safely, but Sean's heart
sank as he saw how little room she had to maneuver. Then an
inspiration came to him. [Hey!] he thought. [That Powered
Suit's helmet has a big lens in it - probably the sensors!
If I can spike that with a beam sword, it could blind him,
and he'll have to give up!] Suiting action to thought, Sean
circled to the right of the gray armor, lining up a throw.

By the time he looked back at the battle, Mason had grabbed
the white hardsuit by one arm and was prying at the helmet.
[No more time,] Sean thought as the helmet 'cracked',
[Gotta get him NOW!] He pulled back his arm and threw, sure
almost at once that his aim was true...

*** ***

Sylia was desperate. She'd hit Mason's suit with her Knuckle
Bombers and he'd barely flinched. As her helmet's outer visor
cracked open, she extended her left-arm vibroblade, hoping
to find an opening. Mason broke her helmet open, then opened
his own.

"Sylia," he said gloatingly. "I knew it." Then a translucent
sword hissed through the air, passed over Sylia's head, and
struck Mason in the right eye. A moment later, it exploded.

*** ***

[OH GOD, NO!] Sean thought. The idiot had opened his helmet
in the middle of a battle, and Sean's sword... [Oh God, let
him be alive,] Sean prayed as he dashed over to the gray
armor. [I never meant to kill anyone! No one deserves to die
before their time!] Sean reached the toppled armor and
looked inside. "Ukkhh... Ohhh my Godddd....." He scrambled
for a corner as his gorge rose, and his mind turned tight
little circles as he vomited, then knelt quietly, conscious,
but no longer aware of the outside world...

*** ***

Sylia moved over beside the kneeling, silent Iczelion. She
put one armored hand on his shoulder, but got no response.
She turned to Nene and the arriving Priss and Linna. "I
think he's gone into psychological shock. We can't just
leave him here, so we'll bring him back with us. Linna,
Priss, carry him; Nene, assist me, please. Let's go home."

*** ***

Sean bolted awake in a cold sweat. [What a nightmare!] He
thought. [I was helping the Knight Sabers, and I - I
*killed* that Mason guy, and then...] the thought trailed
off as he registered his surroundings. He was in a well-
decorated bedroom that was either an apartment or a
penthouse by the height of the view out of the large
windows. In the street below was a work crew fixing an odd
dent in the sidewalk... [Hey!] Sean thought. [That looks
like the dent that BU-12-B put in the pavement when I dove
down on it near the Silky Doll shop! No way... How did I
get here? This is too weird.] His thoughts were interrupted
by a sending from Iczel.

{Sean! You're awake! You were so deep in despair that I had
to separate from you! I thought you'd be comatose! Oh, I'm
so glad you're all right!} Iczel drifted in from a side door,
and Sean's thoughts darkened several degrees. [Oh, no,] he
thought, [if Iczel's here, and separate, then not only did I
really... really... k-kill someone, but the Knight Sabers
know about me and worse, about Iczel! Oh, Sean, you have well
and truly screwed it this time! Not that your sorrow can make
any difference to that M-Mason...] Sean sat up, wrapped his
arms around his knees, and quietly sobbed into the sheet.

A new voice cut through Sean's misery. "Hey, what're you
crying for? You saved a bunch of lives last night! 'Soldier,
fighting to kill the wrong...'" Sean's head snapped up. He'd
heard that voice singing at concerts - it _couldn't_ be...

"Priss? _The_ Priss, from Priss and the Replicants? What in
the world are _you_ doing here? I mean, I think this is..."
Sean shut up: [She might not know that the Sabers are
involved!] he thought.

She finished for him. "Yeah, this is home to the Knight
Sabers, and I'm one of them. So?" Sean just stared. She
sighed, and continued, "I recognized your face from some of
my nights at Hot Legs. You were in the front row getting
bumped by a big A.D.P. goof, so since you were a fan I
picked myself to cheer you up a bit. Never killed anyone
before, have you?" she asked. Sean shook his head. "Sorry,
that's always hard. I grew up on the streets, so at least I
was familiar with death 'n violence. Still, I wouldn't be
too sad about that scumbag Mason. He had it coming-" She
was cut off as Sean erupted off the bed and shoved her up
against the wall.

"DON'T YOU EVER SAY THAT!" he howled. "M-my father... was
attacked and killed by muggers when I was five... The police
caught them the next day, and they were LAUGHING... th-they
said he fought back, so h-he had it c-coming...." Sean let
go of Priss' collar and sank to his knees. His voice grew so
quiet it was almost a whisper. "*Nobody* deserves to be
killed. Whatever he did, did his parents deserve to lose a
child? Did he have a wife, a family, who can thank me for
the fact that he'll never come back? You see why I'm upset
here?" He was looking down at the floor. Priss stepped away
with a murmured apology, and walked to the door. Sean heard
her exit as a set of quieter footsteps came over to him. An
equally quiet voice spoke from behind him.

"I appreciate your moral code, Sean Kai. And I also
appreciate what you did last night. But to resolve your
distress, I can offer you a question; can you tell me what
would have happened if you hadn't tried to help me that
night?"

Sean thought for a moment, but didn't look up. "You, I
suppose, are the pilot of the white hardsuit. I don't know:
you always seemed to be very resourceful. You'd probably
have escaped somehow."

"No, Sean. I had already tried my best weapon on him and
had no success, and his battlesuit was much stronger than my
own. I believe I could well have died if you had not acted.
Also, you didn't intend to kill him, did you? You meant to
blow his sensor systems. If he hadn't opened his armor at
that moment, would he be dead?"

Sean sighed, blowing out what felt like a mountain of tension.
"What you're saying is that (a) his death wasn't my fault,
and (b) even if it was, it was him or you. I don't know you
very well, but I agree - I would have chosen to save you if
you and he were in deadly danger and I could only get one of
you. I still feel guilty, but it's different from a
deliberate murder, you're right. Thank you." Sean looked up...

...Right into the eyes of Mackie's sister Sylia Stingray.
Sean jumped. "Good grief, how many of the Knight Sabers did
I know without knowing it?" As if in answer, Nene and Linna
ran into the room.

"We just heard he was awake! How is he - oh." Linna said. A
strange look spread across her face. "I _knew_ it had to be
you, Sean, after Iczelion trashed that Boomer with a German
Suplex and you had a headache the next day! You smoothed y
our way out of it, but only because I couldn't reveal I was
a Knight Saber! You are one sneaky young man, you know that?"

Sean looked stunned, then his face screwed into a grimace.
"Linna! *You* are a Knight Saber? Oh, man, suplexing that
Boomer was a dead giveaway!" As he stood up, he cocked his
head at Linna. "No wonder you had a headache the day after
that sonic Boomer ambush. You were down there! Let's see.
Sylia pilots the white armor, this cute lady," indicating
Nene with a salute, "is the right size to use the pink-and-
blue armor, so you could either pilot the blue suit with the
firepower or the green one with the blast punch and those
ingenious cutting ribbons. Offhand, I'd guess... the blue
suit!" Linna scowled at him, Nene laughed, and Sylia quietly
smiled. Sean shied away from Linna's gaze. "I'm kidding.
I'm kidding! Really, I was kidding!," he cried as she glared
daggers at him.

Nene got over the giggles and walked over to Sean, extending
her hand to him. "I'm Nene Romanova. I do computers and
electronics in the field, and I'm also a commtech with A.D.
Police. I'm really pleased to meet you, especially since
you've saved me twice. 'That is *no* way to treat a lady!'"
Sean grinned at the quote. It was the first time he'd smiled
since he'd awakened.

"I'm Sean Kai, if you didn't know that already. My partner
is called Iczel, and I am _very_ pleased to meet all of you.
I have to wonder, though; why let me know? The fewer people
who know a secret, the easier it is to keep, so why let me
in on your identities?"

It was Sylia who answered. "By the time we had returned to
base, your emotional state had already forced Iczel to
separate from you, so we knew who you were. Linna suspected
before, but now we _knew_, so trading information was only
fair. I think it's safe to say that we're on the same side.
But before I finish answering that question, I would like
to ask you, might we take you to dinner tonight as thanks
for helping us?"

Sean grinned. "I would like that very much, thank you. Where
are we going?"

Sylia smiled. "The five of us have reservations for tonight
at the St. Regis Hotel's restaurant. Linna informs me that
you do own formal wear, so you and she can go to your place
to get ready."

Sean had choked at the mention of the incredibly expensive
St. Regis. "Uhm... Ackhem! Can you afford that?" he asked.
Sylia just looked at him. "Dumb," he said after a moment.
"You collect those huge fees that made me think you were
'just mercenaries.' Of course you can afford it, or you
couldn't stay in business as a team." Sylia smiled as Sean
turned to Linna. "Now, sensei, as you have a vehicle and I
don't, could you, as the lady suggests, convey me home so I
can 'properly prepare for a dinner engagement'?" Linna
chuckled at his affected tone and the two of them ribbed
each other as they headed for the elevator.

*** ***

Later that night, the meal was just coming to a close, with
Sean and Sylia seated across from each other and the other
three spread out around the table. Sean had chosen to wear a
blue suit that was an uncanny match for Sylia's ensemble.
Both had protested (when asked by the other three) that they
had not collaborated on outfits. Finally, after the dessert
dishes had been taken away, Sean looked into Sylia's eyes
and spoke.

"All right, Sylia. There's been an odd tension at the table
tonight, like everyone's expecting something. What's going
on?" Sean was surprised to see the cool Sylia look away,
[Almost as if she's getting ready to hide disappointment,]
he thought.

Sylia softly cleared her throat and began to speak. "I
believe that the others are expectant because it was at
dinners like these that I finalized their alliances with me
to form... our organization."

Sean paused for a moment to think. It only lasted long enough
to recall all the feelings of kinship he'd had with Sylia,
his trust of Linna, and his liking of the other Sabers. He
also realized that she'd only explained what the other three
thought - she hadn't made an offer. He decided to be cautious.
"Um... Are they correct about the purpose of tonight, then?"
he asked.

Sylia looked down at her napkin. "Yes, they are. We - I -
would like you to join us. There would be no intrusive study
of your 'partner', either. Would you accept?" [I'm not
usually this nervous - well, this shy,] Sylia thought. [It
must be the wine I drank with the meal. I don't usually
indulge, but tonight I wanted an emotional cushion in case
he said 'no'.]

Sean, in a move that astonished Linna, who knew him best,
reached across the table and gently raised Sylia's head so
she looked him in the eye. "I would be glad, and honored, to
accept your offer, Sylia Stingray." At his words, her eyes
lit up, so briefly that he wondered if he'd really seen it.
Then she gathered herself and became the cool professional
once again.

"Excellent! I hope we have a long and enjoyable partnership,"
she said. "I'll need to do some assessments, so if you could
come by Raven's Garage tomorrow, we can get on with that.
After that, we can arrange some group exercises to accustom
you to working with the team, and see about financial
arrangements. If that concludes our business here," and she
signaled for the cheque, "we can return to our homes and get
ready for tomorrow. Some of us will have a busy day!" Sean
sighed, but he was grinning.

Sylia looked at him and thought, [And if I can keep you busy
for long enough, you might begin to recover from that shock
you suffered saving my life. I can't say it aloud here,
flying knight, but welcome to the Knight Sabers!]