Overlap Part 4. Corresponds to draft part 8.
__________
Sylia was looking concerned over Nene when she came to consciousness.
"Nene, what happened?" Sylia asked. Did Nene know that she had a serious injury?
Nene straightened herself up, sitting upon the bed and faced Sylia.
"Sylia, something definitely weird is going around the city. What's more, I think someone knows about our identity."
Sylia's eyes widened just a bit. "Well what exactly makes you think that way, Nene?"
Here Nene mumbled a gusto of words Sylia could not understand, then her voice suddenly became louder and clearer, as though
she was straining to make herself heard.
"I found...Pictures of us. And there is a new "Knightsaber" out there in the city. I couldn't find out how they were taken
nor where they exactly came from, but I know the new "Knightsaber" is real enough.
I have traced our shots as far as I can go, but it only rounds up to a Yahoo e-mail address, made in a Net cafe."
Sylia nodded and stroked Nene's face.
"Well what you cannot find out, I cannot find out. However, this new Knightsaber... When did this happen?
I knew something was up when people started talking about her in my boutique, but I didn't realise she
actually existed. Well, Nene, I think you need to rest your nerves for a while. I have reason to believe that you're an invalid
for the moment."
Mackay came into the room. Seeing him, Nene sighed, then laid back upon the pillow.
"Uh, Nene, would you like some water or anything?" Eager to please Nene in any way, Mackay was choosing his words carefully.
"No, thank you...I am quite all right, Mackay, and that'll be MISS Nene..." Here Nene grimaced as she sat up.
Mackay made a move to assist her, but Nene just smiled and waved her hand.
"No, I really am all right, just got exhausted from running all the way here from the ADP tower, that's all."
Sylia's eyes widened again in surprise. 'So Nene doesn't realise she has been injured?' She thought.
Sylia smiled and stood up. "Well, I've got to do some stocktaking...Why don't you two talk, so long as Mackay is not needed too
much by Nigel of course."
Nene opened her mouth in slight protest, but Sylia was already opening the door.
"Well, I'll see you tonight. And Mackay, take care of Nene."
"Yes, Sylia," Mackay responded.
Sylia smiled once more, and the door closed, leaving Nene and Mackay in the room.
____________
I turn, slicing the wind and falling into the jungle of buildings. No rogue boomer yet.
It almost looks as though I might need to start on No.2 of my priority list.
I sigh, and turn towards the GENOM tower, the center of all evils in this city that's very obvious. As I get closer, the massiveness only
seems to trap the little bit of freedom in me. It has no majestic air, this building - only a very foul one.
I attach the Skylark to my visor, and soon I am able to detect faint goings-on in the building. There are boomers being manufactured
in the underground levels; you can see when these things are being stamped with quality control, the quality control system has been tampered
with.
All these scenes spell doom in uppercase lettering to me; a total stranger in the city.
Don't all the other people realise yet? Or do they simply not care about probably anything much at all?
I rise up to one of the upper levels.
There is a large office, with a mahogany desk and a black leather chair, all very expensive. I survey the office carefully.
The laptop on the desk seems to be linked to all the coms in the building - only if I can hack through it...
The door opens, and a blue-haired boomer enters the office. I use a cloaking device, but the boomer is not fooled.
She walks up to the window, and punches a fist through! But the window however does not shatter; it forms some kind of hole around her hand.
It's almost as though she was punching through water, not bulletproof glass.
I stand fascinated, forgetting for a moment what was going on.
The hand stretches, closing itself around my neck. It is strangling me!
I panic. I cannot breathe; my neck is not protected under this suit model, and I stupidly omitted to wear the collar.
I think fast. It would take at least thirteen seconds before the boomer will gather
enough force upon her stretched wrist to break my neck.
I reach down into my backpack, and pull out a laser cylinder. I raise it until the red dot of the laser focuses on the boomer's left eye.
I press the switch with all my energy.
A beam of light invisible to the human eye, streams out of the cylinder, and the boomer stands frozen.
Taking the chance, I rip her hand off my neck, and pull at the hand, hoping all the while that it does not stretch any more.
Breathing deeply, I drag out the boomer. Strangely, the hole closed after her, and the glass is now hard as diamonds once more.
I let go of the boomer. She falls, down and down into the street below, but her blue hair is still caught in my hand.
I was just about to let the wig drop as well, but I change my mind and throw it in amongst the other tools in my pack.
I open my left wristguard, and change the suit settings. It remodels itself, turning me into a perfect copy of the boomer I
destroyed just before.
I smile, and walk through the glass as though it was just water.
Now that I am in the office, I take one more look before changing back, just to make sure that everything is as it was before.
The laptop is on the desk, and the screen comes on as I point my finger at it.
I open a couple of windows as I change back. Nothing much catches my interest.
Then I sigh, and make the sign of the cross, like He taught me to do in a time long, long ago.
"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit..." I whisper, but somehow a lump in my throat prevents me from saying
Amen. I am not surprised however; this has happened before.
'You take over now, Langley,' I whisper in my head.
Suddenly, I lost control of my body, and the vision dims, everything swirling around me, just like the night when He came.
I stagger, then straighten myself up. No, I cannot do this again! I am human, not a machine!
Too late! Too late!...everything is becoming faint now...
_____________
"Mason, I believe those Knightsabers are INCREASING. You are doing your job in destroying them I hope, before they destroy too many
of my boomers. Go, and find out all you can about the new one. It is probably inexperienced. Perhaps you might capture it, and give me the joy
of seeing a Knightsaber face to face. It is time you take control of this problem, Mason. I am not..."
Here the Chairman took a deep breath, and started coughing again.
Mason bowed.
"I shall do as you say."
Mason turned, and walked out.
__________
Langley stretched herself full in the Control capsule. She needed to concentrate hard, otherwise it'll all be in vain.
Optical cables connected to her bare body, first the forehead, arms, torso then the legs. Now she was floating in midair,
and a current dangerous enough to kill three elephants at once swirled around her like jellyfish tentacles, free
of any form of wires or cables.
Langley concentrated harder, and now light flooded her body from the optical cable endings.
I am taking over, Tienx.
The light suddenly dimmed, just a little, but brightened again.
_______________
The boomer slammed unto the footpath. People were gasping, trying to move away from its way. The boomer, rising up with hardly a scratch,
glared at the people, then stretched its hand out to grab at an unlucky child.
The child squirmed and resisted for a while, then a violent tremor ran through her body and all was still. A woman shrieked and fainted.
"Someone call the AD Police!" A man yelled, trembling.
________________
Linna ran into the boutique, through the mirrored door and down the elevator.
The door finally opened after what seemed to be like half a century, and Linna ran out, straight into the already-suited Priss.
"Yikes! Sorry Priss!" Linna gasped.
"I'm fine, the hardsuits are designed to have more weight slamming upon them, " Priss cooly replied, and walked off to launch.
"Where's Nene?"
"She's sick. Mackay is looking after her."
The door slid close after Priss, and Linna ran into the changeroom.
______________
The red-haired assistant approached Mason.
"Yes, I do know that the Stingray woman is getting impatient with me, and wants a one-on-one discussion."
"Will you be seeing her soon, sir?"
"No, I'll wait until she becomes very impatient. Why, I believe that is her just over there in my office."
Mason pointed at the screen, at a woman in hardsuit, poring over the laptop.
"Hm." Twisting his face into a sardonic smile, Mason sopke to himself.
"I know you want to see me, Sylia, but it's not time yet."
___________
Priss dropped a neat punch into the boomer's shoulder. Her knucklebombers had made a large hole, which was sealed up almost instantly.
The boomer leapt up and placed an equally effective punch into Priss's shoulder.
Priss dodged a second punch, and the two jumped away from each other, Priss puffing, but the boomer displayed neither simulated
anger nor exhaustion. In fact, there was no strange glint from its eye, nor did it show anything typical for a rogue boomer yet.
'Damn! This boomer is NOT rogue!' thought Priss as another of her punches made insignificant marks upon the boomer.
This boomer was unlike any other boomers she had fought with before. Calm and collected, her femimine figure had made a graceful assasin
out of the metallic creature, landling blows after blows that were equally as well aimed and planned as her own.
Both the boomer and Priss skidded around in a circle, and the circle was now getting tighter and tigheter.
It would soon be crash time, Priss knew, and this would decide the winner.
Priss sped up.
The boomer sped up also.
Three seconds before they meet, two, one...Hiyaaah!
Damn! The blow had glanced off and the target regenerated again!
Priss could feel the strength being lapped out of her.
She closed her eyes, listening once more for a sound, a voice.
Why was Linna taking so long? Any moment now her battery would run out, and she would lose to a boomer - for the first and the last time.
To be honest, Priss did not want to think what would happen if she had lost.
Since that had never happened, she wondered how her final days would end, and how the rest of the world would feel about it.
The promised world tour with Sekiria's members.
Will they simply find a new lead vocal?
Sylia, Linna, and Nene.
Would they still go on as Knightsabers? Without her? And find a replacememt soon?
Priss opened her eyes. No, she didn't need to know that.
All that matter now is to fight this boomer.
She braced herself as the boomer moved in to make another attack upon her.
____________
A map flashed across Linna's visor. A red dot between some alleyways.
This must be where Priss is, she thought as she made her way there.
Although the suit was able to move at speeds almost as fast as a Lear 35A when airborne, the trip took up quite a time, what with having
to lower to the ground and setting off again, looking in every alleyway to see whether there was a boomer there. After the fifth touchdown,
Linna almost decided on not looking them up - no sign of boomer, or any fighting.
Then something made the hair on the back of her head rise up. A tingling sensation at the back, almost as though a blade was aimed there.
Premonition of Danger.
Linna turned around. Sure, there was the boomer, glaring its green eyes out at her.
But still no sigh of Priss.
Linna turned her body around to face the boomer, and realised it wasn't an ordinary boomer, but two boomers fusing together.
One of the boomers looked surprisingly like a K-suit.
And inside, there was an ADP official, struggling for life.
Linna panicked, and turned around. Surely there were other ADP vehicles and officers in the area, not knowing what to do.
This must have been going on for at least three minutes, Linna thought as she set the time on the watch. A digital timer appeared on the right
corner of her visor.
Linna grimaced, then ran into the fusing boomers, slamming her body against them.
____________
Tienx-Langley looked up as Mason entered the office, followed by the red-haired boomer.
"I see we meet again...wait a second! You're not Sylia, are you??"
Tienx-Langley removed her helmet, showing off her tumbling golden wave of hair.
"No, I am not, and I do not believe this hair colour will look anything like Miss Sylia Stingray's hair."
She smiled, and her smile showed pure defiance of Mason and his boomer assistant.
"Then who may you be?" Mason squinted his eyes.
Tienx-Lalngley caught a slight movement of his hand directing the boomer on what to do while he bought time with aimless conversations.
"My name is Tienx. But then, my name could also be Langley."
"And what have you against GENOM?"
Here Tienx-Langley smiled. "Will this explain all my grudges?"
She threw a card upon the desk, and Mason glanced at the card.
"I see a reason."
Tienx-Langley was surprised, and it showed plainly upon her face. "You do? But I thought..."
_____________
Nene stood up, then walked to the change rooms.
"I must get into the suit, Mackay. Linna and Priss must be waiting."
Mackay was almost in tears. "But Nene, you're not well! You should be resting, not going out there risking your life! Plus, Sylia said..."
"Oh who gives a damn about what she says NOW???" Nene's voice was getting harsher.
She staggered, grimacing from the pain. What was this pain? Where was it coming from?
Nene looked down at her right leg, and saw a huge bloody gash upon her leg, coming down from her thigh down almost to her ankles.
"What happened...Here?"
"You were like that when you came in. Sylia and I noticed it, but I thought you knew."
Nene pulkled a face, then shrugged her shoulders. After all, this slight injury shouldn't put any strain on her performance...
"Look, Mackay, I must do this. Sylia chose me to do this and if I fail her now..."
Mackay looked at Nene, and sighed.
"Nene, I will get you launched. Just be careful of yourself, alright?"
___________
Adrian was now slamming his fist against the door in some sort of a maniac frenzy.
Someone grabbed at his collar.
Adrian spun around, only to face Sara Estella.
"Please don't disturb Langley, sir."
Adrian glared at Sara Estella, but Sara Estella was unmoved.
"She knows what she is doing. You're a civillian now, and you oughta know Langley can take care of herself by now."
"And what have you in this muddy pit, child?" He was fuming. These women...What was their secrets? Why did they hang about Langley?
"All I can tell you for the moment sir, is that you'll regret the moment you walk into the chamber. What do you think the lightning
flashing in the chamber is, other than Langley's own memories forming a chapel around Langley to protect herself? I do not think you'd like
to be consumed by her own memories...Would you?"
Adrian slipped out his Glock, and aimed it at Sara Estella's forehead.
"I know you know more about this. How about we just get to the bottom of it?"
Sara Estella smiled, and pushed the barrel away. "I wouldn't make such a foolish move, sir. Nasty noisy things, aren't they?"
She was now smiling, and she took the gun into her hands. "Strange...You have a Glock, and if I remember right, Langley has got that skinny
Colt revolver...But it was Langley who stood to the duel, not you. Why is that?"
Here Sara Estella took a somewhat sad expression upon her face.
"Did I tell you...Langley was my mother? My biological mother?"
Surprise registered upon Adrian's face.
"Yes," Sara Estella nodded. "Langley actually had two previous pregnancies. The first one, the misacrriage. The second one brought me here."
Now she took one step forward, her face almost touching his.
"Neat secret huh? Did you know about all those details? No, I am positive you don't, you were away on one mission after another."
Then Sara Estella suddenly stepped back, leaning her back against the wall.
"Or did you just not want to know about THAT kind of truth?"
"Did you care about Langley? Did you know that I existed? Would you have come back here earlier if you knew I was here?"
"..."
"Hah! So many questions, yet so little answers! You're supposed to answer all that for me, you're my father! My biological father! I can call
you father, or did anyone say I can't?"
"..."
"I know about what happened with the 'miscarriage,' [I]father[/I]. Which I suppose wouldn't surprise you much, because everyone else knows about it
except Langley. But then, I'll tell you what: She knows. That's how I know. She told me."
"..."
"So now that we're all here, what have we gained and lost by all this? Do we have anything left? Do you know Langley's preganant again,
and it is her third month now?"
"..."
"From the beginning of our lives, me and Tamaritha, we have been really thankful that you and Langley took us in, useless nagging brats as we were.
We tried to make up for the whole thing, and didn't care all that much about how you two treated us, just thankful you two let us live. Thankful.
Just that. Now that we all know, will you try to make it up for us? Take us to amusement parks or something?"
Adrian still said nothing, but took out some rope from his pocket.
Sara Estella's eyes widened, maybe just a little.
Adrian smiled with a murderer's eyes. "A gun may be a threat, but a rope is for real... Did Langley ever tell you that?"
Sara Estella did not say anything, and on her face now settled a determined expression.
A single moan of "Father..."
The horrid sound of a breaking bone followed...two fatal minutes later.
____________
Priss's battery was waning, and she could feel every weakening pulse it gave out.
"Sylia, I just thought you wanted to know, there's no need to send in others. Too late anyway.
I'll try to finish off the boomer."
__________
Sylia was looking concerned over Nene when she came to consciousness.
"Nene, what happened?" Sylia asked. Did Nene know that she had a serious injury?
Nene straightened herself up, sitting upon the bed and faced Sylia.
"Sylia, something definitely weird is going around the city. What's more, I think someone knows about our identity."
Sylia's eyes widened just a bit. "Well what exactly makes you think that way, Nene?"
Here Nene mumbled a gusto of words Sylia could not understand, then her voice suddenly became louder and clearer, as though
she was straining to make herself heard.
"I found...Pictures of us. And there is a new "Knightsaber" out there in the city. I couldn't find out how they were taken
nor where they exactly came from, but I know the new "Knightsaber" is real enough.
I have traced our shots as far as I can go, but it only rounds up to a Yahoo e-mail address, made in a Net cafe."
Sylia nodded and stroked Nene's face.
"Well what you cannot find out, I cannot find out. However, this new Knightsaber... When did this happen?
I knew something was up when people started talking about her in my boutique, but I didn't realise she
actually existed. Well, Nene, I think you need to rest your nerves for a while. I have reason to believe that you're an invalid
for the moment."
Mackay came into the room. Seeing him, Nene sighed, then laid back upon the pillow.
"Uh, Nene, would you like some water or anything?" Eager to please Nene in any way, Mackay was choosing his words carefully.
"No, thank you...I am quite all right, Mackay, and that'll be MISS Nene..." Here Nene grimaced as she sat up.
Mackay made a move to assist her, but Nene just smiled and waved her hand.
"No, I really am all right, just got exhausted from running all the way here from the ADP tower, that's all."
Sylia's eyes widened again in surprise. 'So Nene doesn't realise she has been injured?' She thought.
Sylia smiled and stood up. "Well, I've got to do some stocktaking...Why don't you two talk, so long as Mackay is not needed too
much by Nigel of course."
Nene opened her mouth in slight protest, but Sylia was already opening the door.
"Well, I'll see you tonight. And Mackay, take care of Nene."
"Yes, Sylia," Mackay responded.
Sylia smiled once more, and the door closed, leaving Nene and Mackay in the room.
____________
I turn, slicing the wind and falling into the jungle of buildings. No rogue boomer yet.
It almost looks as though I might need to start on No.2 of my priority list.
I sigh, and turn towards the GENOM tower, the center of all evils in this city that's very obvious. As I get closer, the massiveness only
seems to trap the little bit of freedom in me. It has no majestic air, this building - only a very foul one.
I attach the Skylark to my visor, and soon I am able to detect faint goings-on in the building. There are boomers being manufactured
in the underground levels; you can see when these things are being stamped with quality control, the quality control system has been tampered
with.
All these scenes spell doom in uppercase lettering to me; a total stranger in the city.
Don't all the other people realise yet? Or do they simply not care about probably anything much at all?
I rise up to one of the upper levels.
There is a large office, with a mahogany desk and a black leather chair, all very expensive. I survey the office carefully.
The laptop on the desk seems to be linked to all the coms in the building - only if I can hack through it...
The door opens, and a blue-haired boomer enters the office. I use a cloaking device, but the boomer is not fooled.
She walks up to the window, and punches a fist through! But the window however does not shatter; it forms some kind of hole around her hand.
It's almost as though she was punching through water, not bulletproof glass.
I stand fascinated, forgetting for a moment what was going on.
The hand stretches, closing itself around my neck. It is strangling me!
I panic. I cannot breathe; my neck is not protected under this suit model, and I stupidly omitted to wear the collar.
I think fast. It would take at least thirteen seconds before the boomer will gather
enough force upon her stretched wrist to break my neck.
I reach down into my backpack, and pull out a laser cylinder. I raise it until the red dot of the laser focuses on the boomer's left eye.
I press the switch with all my energy.
A beam of light invisible to the human eye, streams out of the cylinder, and the boomer stands frozen.
Taking the chance, I rip her hand off my neck, and pull at the hand, hoping all the while that it does not stretch any more.
Breathing deeply, I drag out the boomer. Strangely, the hole closed after her, and the glass is now hard as diamonds once more.
I let go of the boomer. She falls, down and down into the street below, but her blue hair is still caught in my hand.
I was just about to let the wig drop as well, but I change my mind and throw it in amongst the other tools in my pack.
I open my left wristguard, and change the suit settings. It remodels itself, turning me into a perfect copy of the boomer I
destroyed just before.
I smile, and walk through the glass as though it was just water.
Now that I am in the office, I take one more look before changing back, just to make sure that everything is as it was before.
The laptop is on the desk, and the screen comes on as I point my finger at it.
I open a couple of windows as I change back. Nothing much catches my interest.
Then I sigh, and make the sign of the cross, like He taught me to do in a time long, long ago.
"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit..." I whisper, but somehow a lump in my throat prevents me from saying
Amen. I am not surprised however; this has happened before.
'You take over now, Langley,' I whisper in my head.
Suddenly, I lost control of my body, and the vision dims, everything swirling around me, just like the night when He came.
I stagger, then straighten myself up. No, I cannot do this again! I am human, not a machine!
Too late! Too late!...everything is becoming faint now...
_____________
"Mason, I believe those Knightsabers are INCREASING. You are doing your job in destroying them I hope, before they destroy too many
of my boomers. Go, and find out all you can about the new one. It is probably inexperienced. Perhaps you might capture it, and give me the joy
of seeing a Knightsaber face to face. It is time you take control of this problem, Mason. I am not..."
Here the Chairman took a deep breath, and started coughing again.
Mason bowed.
"I shall do as you say."
Mason turned, and walked out.
__________
Langley stretched herself full in the Control capsule. She needed to concentrate hard, otherwise it'll all be in vain.
Optical cables connected to her bare body, first the forehead, arms, torso then the legs. Now she was floating in midair,
and a current dangerous enough to kill three elephants at once swirled around her like jellyfish tentacles, free
of any form of wires or cables.
Langley concentrated harder, and now light flooded her body from the optical cable endings.
I am taking over, Tienx.
The light suddenly dimmed, just a little, but brightened again.
_______________
The boomer slammed unto the footpath. People were gasping, trying to move away from its way. The boomer, rising up with hardly a scratch,
glared at the people, then stretched its hand out to grab at an unlucky child.
The child squirmed and resisted for a while, then a violent tremor ran through her body and all was still. A woman shrieked and fainted.
"Someone call the AD Police!" A man yelled, trembling.
________________
Linna ran into the boutique, through the mirrored door and down the elevator.
The door finally opened after what seemed to be like half a century, and Linna ran out, straight into the already-suited Priss.
"Yikes! Sorry Priss!" Linna gasped.
"I'm fine, the hardsuits are designed to have more weight slamming upon them, " Priss cooly replied, and walked off to launch.
"Where's Nene?"
"She's sick. Mackay is looking after her."
The door slid close after Priss, and Linna ran into the changeroom.
______________
The red-haired assistant approached Mason.
"Yes, I do know that the Stingray woman is getting impatient with me, and wants a one-on-one discussion."
"Will you be seeing her soon, sir?"
"No, I'll wait until she becomes very impatient. Why, I believe that is her just over there in my office."
Mason pointed at the screen, at a woman in hardsuit, poring over the laptop.
"Hm." Twisting his face into a sardonic smile, Mason sopke to himself.
"I know you want to see me, Sylia, but it's not time yet."
___________
Priss dropped a neat punch into the boomer's shoulder. Her knucklebombers had made a large hole, which was sealed up almost instantly.
The boomer leapt up and placed an equally effective punch into Priss's shoulder.
Priss dodged a second punch, and the two jumped away from each other, Priss puffing, but the boomer displayed neither simulated
anger nor exhaustion. In fact, there was no strange glint from its eye, nor did it show anything typical for a rogue boomer yet.
'Damn! This boomer is NOT rogue!' thought Priss as another of her punches made insignificant marks upon the boomer.
This boomer was unlike any other boomers she had fought with before. Calm and collected, her femimine figure had made a graceful assasin
out of the metallic creature, landling blows after blows that were equally as well aimed and planned as her own.
Both the boomer and Priss skidded around in a circle, and the circle was now getting tighter and tigheter.
It would soon be crash time, Priss knew, and this would decide the winner.
Priss sped up.
The boomer sped up also.
Three seconds before they meet, two, one...Hiyaaah!
Damn! The blow had glanced off and the target regenerated again!
Priss could feel the strength being lapped out of her.
She closed her eyes, listening once more for a sound, a voice.
Why was Linna taking so long? Any moment now her battery would run out, and she would lose to a boomer - for the first and the last time.
To be honest, Priss did not want to think what would happen if she had lost.
Since that had never happened, she wondered how her final days would end, and how the rest of the world would feel about it.
The promised world tour with Sekiria's members.
Will they simply find a new lead vocal?
Sylia, Linna, and Nene.
Would they still go on as Knightsabers? Without her? And find a replacememt soon?
Priss opened her eyes. No, she didn't need to know that.
All that matter now is to fight this boomer.
She braced herself as the boomer moved in to make another attack upon her.
____________
A map flashed across Linna's visor. A red dot between some alleyways.
This must be where Priss is, she thought as she made her way there.
Although the suit was able to move at speeds almost as fast as a Lear 35A when airborne, the trip took up quite a time, what with having
to lower to the ground and setting off again, looking in every alleyway to see whether there was a boomer there. After the fifth touchdown,
Linna almost decided on not looking them up - no sign of boomer, or any fighting.
Then something made the hair on the back of her head rise up. A tingling sensation at the back, almost as though a blade was aimed there.
Premonition of Danger.
Linna turned around. Sure, there was the boomer, glaring its green eyes out at her.
But still no sigh of Priss.
Linna turned her body around to face the boomer, and realised it wasn't an ordinary boomer, but two boomers fusing together.
One of the boomers looked surprisingly like a K-suit.
And inside, there was an ADP official, struggling for life.
Linna panicked, and turned around. Surely there were other ADP vehicles and officers in the area, not knowing what to do.
This must have been going on for at least three minutes, Linna thought as she set the time on the watch. A digital timer appeared on the right
corner of her visor.
Linna grimaced, then ran into the fusing boomers, slamming her body against them.
____________
Tienx-Langley looked up as Mason entered the office, followed by the red-haired boomer.
"I see we meet again...wait a second! You're not Sylia, are you??"
Tienx-Langley removed her helmet, showing off her tumbling golden wave of hair.
"No, I am not, and I do not believe this hair colour will look anything like Miss Sylia Stingray's hair."
She smiled, and her smile showed pure defiance of Mason and his boomer assistant.
"Then who may you be?" Mason squinted his eyes.
Tienx-Lalngley caught a slight movement of his hand directing the boomer on what to do while he bought time with aimless conversations.
"My name is Tienx. But then, my name could also be Langley."
"And what have you against GENOM?"
Here Tienx-Langley smiled. "Will this explain all my grudges?"
She threw a card upon the desk, and Mason glanced at the card.
"I see a reason."
Tienx-Langley was surprised, and it showed plainly upon her face. "You do? But I thought..."
_____________
Nene stood up, then walked to the change rooms.
"I must get into the suit, Mackay. Linna and Priss must be waiting."
Mackay was almost in tears. "But Nene, you're not well! You should be resting, not going out there risking your life! Plus, Sylia said..."
"Oh who gives a damn about what she says NOW???" Nene's voice was getting harsher.
She staggered, grimacing from the pain. What was this pain? Where was it coming from?
Nene looked down at her right leg, and saw a huge bloody gash upon her leg, coming down from her thigh down almost to her ankles.
"What happened...Here?"
"You were like that when you came in. Sylia and I noticed it, but I thought you knew."
Nene pulkled a face, then shrugged her shoulders. After all, this slight injury shouldn't put any strain on her performance...
"Look, Mackay, I must do this. Sylia chose me to do this and if I fail her now..."
Mackay looked at Nene, and sighed.
"Nene, I will get you launched. Just be careful of yourself, alright?"
___________
Adrian was now slamming his fist against the door in some sort of a maniac frenzy.
Someone grabbed at his collar.
Adrian spun around, only to face Sara Estella.
"Please don't disturb Langley, sir."
Adrian glared at Sara Estella, but Sara Estella was unmoved.
"She knows what she is doing. You're a civillian now, and you oughta know Langley can take care of herself by now."
"And what have you in this muddy pit, child?" He was fuming. These women...What was their secrets? Why did they hang about Langley?
"All I can tell you for the moment sir, is that you'll regret the moment you walk into the chamber. What do you think the lightning
flashing in the chamber is, other than Langley's own memories forming a chapel around Langley to protect herself? I do not think you'd like
to be consumed by her own memories...Would you?"
Adrian slipped out his Glock, and aimed it at Sara Estella's forehead.
"I know you know more about this. How about we just get to the bottom of it?"
Sara Estella smiled, and pushed the barrel away. "I wouldn't make such a foolish move, sir. Nasty noisy things, aren't they?"
She was now smiling, and she took the gun into her hands. "Strange...You have a Glock, and if I remember right, Langley has got that skinny
Colt revolver...But it was Langley who stood to the duel, not you. Why is that?"
Here Sara Estella took a somewhat sad expression upon her face.
"Did I tell you...Langley was my mother? My biological mother?"
Surprise registered upon Adrian's face.
"Yes," Sara Estella nodded. "Langley actually had two previous pregnancies. The first one, the misacrriage. The second one brought me here."
Now she took one step forward, her face almost touching his.
"Neat secret huh? Did you know about all those details? No, I am positive you don't, you were away on one mission after another."
Then Sara Estella suddenly stepped back, leaning her back against the wall.
"Or did you just not want to know about THAT kind of truth?"
"Did you care about Langley? Did you know that I existed? Would you have come back here earlier if you knew I was here?"
"..."
"Hah! So many questions, yet so little answers! You're supposed to answer all that for me, you're my father! My biological father! I can call
you father, or did anyone say I can't?"
"..."
"I know about what happened with the 'miscarriage,' [I]father[/I]. Which I suppose wouldn't surprise you much, because everyone else knows about it
except Langley. But then, I'll tell you what: She knows. That's how I know. She told me."
"..."
"So now that we're all here, what have we gained and lost by all this? Do we have anything left? Do you know Langley's preganant again,
and it is her third month now?"
"..."
"From the beginning of our lives, me and Tamaritha, we have been really thankful that you and Langley took us in, useless nagging brats as we were.
We tried to make up for the whole thing, and didn't care all that much about how you two treated us, just thankful you two let us live. Thankful.
Just that. Now that we all know, will you try to make it up for us? Take us to amusement parks or something?"
Adrian still said nothing, but took out some rope from his pocket.
Sara Estella's eyes widened, maybe just a little.
Adrian smiled with a murderer's eyes. "A gun may be a threat, but a rope is for real... Did Langley ever tell you that?"
Sara Estella did not say anything, and on her face now settled a determined expression.
A single moan of "Father..."
The horrid sound of a breaking bone followed...two fatal minutes later.
____________
Priss's battery was waning, and she could feel every weakening pulse it gave out.
"Sylia, I just thought you wanted to know, there's no need to send in others. Too late anyway.
I'll try to finish off the boomer."