______________
Linna slammed into the boomer, again and again, finally breaking off the link between the core and the K-suit.
"Yes, I did it!" She yelled as she fished out the terrified ADP official and set him down on the ground.
Linna switched to communicate with Mackay.
"Mackay, where is Priss? Tell her I am going there!"
"She should be around the outside of GENOM tower - last transmission was almost an hour ago, when she arrived on the scene."
Linna jumped over a three-storey building and soared into the sky.
"Wait for me Priss! I am coming your way!"
______________
The battery was dead three seconds ago, and Priss could not move.
Strike after strike, the boomer attacked her, cracking her helmet and almost crushing her body against the wall.
"Looks like I end here, Sylia. I wonder if you heard my last message."
Priss groaned as she gritted her teeth against yet another strike the boomer made, which created massive gashes upon her hardsuit.
Soon, the suit will give way, and...
_____________
"Okay Mackay, Where is Priss and Linna?" Nene asked over the comm.
"They should be around the GENOM tower...Whoa? A message from Priss? I'llcheck this out, Nene, but it's still from the same location
as I told you - just go there for now."
Nene smiled, and ran to the tower. People shoved past each other to see the red Knightsaber in action, and Nene could not help but feel
like a celebrity.
_____________
"How much of Magitech do you own?"
Tienx-Langley took out the floppy disks and looked at Mason - No, Brian Mason, the professor and once fanatic of Dr Stingray.
"I own about half - a quarter of Magitech's employees are my own agents. Any of these names familiar?"
Tienx-Langley threw a list upon Mason's hands, then drew a cigarrette case.
"Do you fancy Kent? They're hard to get nowadays."
Mason hardly heard her question - he was too busy staring at the list of the names and blaming himself for the lack of security.
"What is it?"
"I asked if smoking was acceptable upon your code of behaviour which you so rigouriously place upon yourself -
surely a cigarrette could do no harm?"
Mason started. How did she know what I was thinking?
"I see Kent is not favourable to your perception of good and bad. Oh well, you don't know what you're missing out on."
"What exactly do you want?" Mason was fuming, ready to strike out at any moment.
"The money of course, to hush this up." Tienx-Langley smiled as she blew out a long wisp of smoke upon his face.
Mason pulled a disgusted face, and threw a bundle of notes upon the desk, which Tienx-Langley gleefully scraped up.
After packing it into her backpack, she turned around to leave.
"May I ask what you will use it for?" Mason called after her.
Tienx-Langley looked back and smiled. "Although I may be almost equalling you in brains, Professor, I am still young - I need pocket
money to buy a jewel set I always wanted - the chiefmost jewel, of course, being..."
The door slid open, and an army of boomers and humans came in, aiming machine guns upon Tienx-Langley.
Mason smiled. The table was turned now, and he could laugh in her face.
"Why don't you stay for a moment longer? I do have some lovely Scotch tea."
I will take over from now, Langley.
I know, I have been observant of it as per your commands, Langley.
I turn around to respond to Mason's comment. Icy flames are now dancing in my eyes;
I glare at him for giving counterfeit money to Langley.
"Please do not make the mistake of assuming that I will give the disks up without a struggle."
The evil cobra smiled. "Of course you may display your struggle."
The ring of boomer and man moved closer and closer.
I take out my weapon, and slice the ones nearest me in three swipes. The surprise must have been great; it looked as though they
expected me to use a laser gun or hand-to-hand combat, not a weapon that could practically aim to targets behind me.
I feel lucky that the ones nearest me are boomers - If I saw blood spilt on the floor, I'd probably cry.
________________
Miraka stepped upon the pedal hard while Lionel read some book outside the door.
"Maybe it wasn't supposed to be like this, Maybe its meaning is not something shown to be true or not...
Maybe it wasn't so, maybe..."
Miraka raged. "How many maybes are there, Maybe-man? Bloody hell will you stop reading that bloody romance?!?"
"It's not some romance, Miraka, it's the politics record of speeches made recently." Lionel resonded.
"Oh, so the secretaries are now still in the conference reciting every soppy part of Tamaritha's
love life while she lies in the hospital room still in a coma?"
"Maybe, but they'll get to her current state, make decisions and discuss those dicisions in the end."
"I wonder if anyone ever listened to a single word Tamaritha said about the whole arrangement! The poor child, she was never happy with
this whole arrangement - no she wasn't! She was never happy, poor chid! Does anyone care?!"
"Don't get so worked up about it. After all, she IS in a coma."
Miraka sighed. "Yeah you're right. She isn't worked up about it herself anyway, so I guess I
shouldn't bump into other people's affairs."
________________
IT was almost too late when Nene ran into Priss.
"PRISS! ARE YOU OKAY??" Nene yelled. Did her arm move?
Priss opened her eyes. Nene. Sylia. She does care, after all. She can't just forget about...
"C'mon Priss, Get outta here while I fight the boomer!"
Priss's face was burning with embarrassment. How did everything get down to this? Saved by a kid
whom she despised! Life, so full of surprises...
"The spare battery...catch!"
Priss caught it with some effort, and inserted it with some difficulty.
Nene fused into the boomer, found the core and smashed it with ease.
Priss groaned. Why hadn't she thought of it?
________________
When Linna finally arrived at the other side of the tower, she heard gunshots.
"Wha...?" Linna looked up to see a bunch of security guards, man and boomer, surrounding a suited figure that was using a weapon to keep them at bay, and in the background...Mason himself.
Linna flew up to the level and approached the glass. Her cutters flicked out and sliced the glass deftly into shards that tinkled as they fell down.
________________
"Kiyaaaa!!!"
Tamaritha woke up, her body hot and slick with sweat. Had she been dreaming?
She seriously hoped so as she changed out of the gown into normal clothes, and slipped a Glock into her coat as she turned the door handle and stepped out into the dark corridor.
Tamaritha sighed, and reassured herself that it really was a dream.
She flicked on the switch.
Adrian was there, cradling Sara Estella in his arms. Sara Estella's face and body had a bluish colour, and blood...trickling from her lips, a crimson puddle spilling out unto the floor...
Tamaritha staggered, and covered her forehead.
Deja vu... it was a frightful thing. A dream come true - it just had to be a nightmare.
Another door opened, and Langley stepped out.
Trembling, Tamaritha loaded her Glock and held it level to Adrian's head.
Langley gasped, and put her hand to her mouth.
"I...I can explain this. I believe you can too, Langley." Adrian said, smiling weakly.
His voice had gone rash, and he was trembling too.
Langley closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. This time, she was calm.
"Tamaritha, I do not think you should be here. Why don't you fly to Tokyo? Tienx is waiting,"
Tamaritha nodded, and lowered her hand.
"I'll get you for this," she snarled, suddenly turned and ran down the corridor.
________________
Mason smiled. A foolish Knightsaber had just walked into his trap, and the fun was about to begin.
Upon entering, the Knightsaber hesistated.
"No, this girl isn't part of your pack, is she?" Mason asked the green knightsaber.
She chose to ignore him and went straight into the fight to back the girl up. This one was also quite efficient, cutting up as as many of the guards as they came in.
But they are only human after all, and they will soon tire.
Or will they?
_________________
Thalassa was sitting atop her desk, playing jacks when the phone rang.
She pressed the button, and hastily answered.
"Unit Minus Netherlands branch, Development Centre. Thalassa speaking - how may I help you?"
"This is from Magitech Tokyo, and my name is Keiko. The cargo has been dispatched per your orders." the voice on the other end responded.
Thalassa smiled as she caught two pieces in the air.
"Ah, Keiko, it's been a long time since I last saw you! So how's it going?"
"Oh, so-so. Not as Kosher as I'd like it, but you gotta bend the rules a little sometimes."
"I see. So the job has been done?"
"Admirably. It was a classic. Wish you were here to see it being done."
"Thank you! After all, it nearly cost us a whole department, never mind countless lives for us.
We do need our little revenge."
"Well, wasn't Unit Minus created by a certain group of women craving venegence?"
Thalassa was silent. In fact, she was so shocked, she dropped a piece and it rolled under her desk.
Keiko on the other hand, took the hint.
"Er, I guess I'll call you back later. Bye!"
"Bye." She responded sullenly, and pressed the button to hang up.
She groaned, and thanked her lucky stars that she still had an old model for a phone.
And most important of all, that the other side could not see her face.
___________________
Priss slapped Nene's back.
"Thanks kiddo. You...saved my life, and I am grateful for it."
Nene smiled, perhaps even gloating a little.
"You baka! Whaddya think friends are for? Anywayz, I see Leon-peon in the distance...We better bail!
Otherwise they might catch onto what we've been up to and start 'pon on it. I wonder why they take so long sometimes, though I am part of the frustration myself..."
The two darted around some alleyways, then stopped for a rest.
Priss was suddenly thoughtful. "Hey, Nene...?"
"What is it?"
"When you joined the Knightsabers, you already were an employee of the AD Police, right?"
Nene sighed. "No, I joined about the same time. If I was there already, I wouldn't be the same freelance hacker that got Sylia's invite."
"I see. Would you have quitted either if you already were joined to one? I know how dangerous your position is for some 18 yr-old kiddo."
"Yea, barely drinking age. But Like you and Linna, giving up the hoopla of my life is...well, stupid I guess."
Both were silent for a while, then Nene spoke up again.
"Hey Priss, although we really shouldn't ask each other too many questions, it seems I never got the chance to ask you why you wanted to be a Knightsaber.
Really, I wonder what your reason was...everyone got to tell at one stage except you."
Priss leant against the wall and looked up to the sky. "Well, it was a combo of the two pet hates - the boomers and the ADP."
"I see...Hey Priss, did you ever hate me because I am an ADP official?"
"Not really, but at one stage I was a little uneasy - you're just a kid, and you could well be betraying us as you do with the ADP now..."
A crash of glass smashing was heard, and a scream over the comm.
Priss and Nene turned simultaneously towards the tower. A suited figure was falling.
The same thoughts rushed into their heads.
They nodded in compromise, and leapt towards the tower.
______________________
I am falling. The ground is rushing up at incredible speeds and I can do nothing to stop it - wait one moment, maybe I CAN do something!
I concentrate on my body force, and direct it so that I am rising up once more.
As I rise up again, I curse myself for being so careless. The Green one's clumsy method of hand-to-hand combat should have told me something about stepping back.
After all, I should've guessed from her weapons - cutters are distanced combat weapons, designed to ward off enemies.
I groan as I re-enter the chamber, and only see the Green one helplessly fighting the guards, with the bird already flown out of the nest.
I rush in, my chain reflecting silvery light as it slices through the guards and making a clean-cut path to the Green one.
I focus on matching her aura patterns, then send a short message:
The Green one starts, and is distracted long enough for a boomer to grab hold of her left arm. I slice the boomer's arm off.
This time, the Green one understood, nodded, and flew out the window.
Now that I got her out of the mess, I faced tens of boomer guards. Although I make tens of them fall to the ground each time I attack, more come in throgh the doors.
What to do, what to do...
_______________________
Linna was lowering herself, one-two-three levels down when she met up with Nene and Priss.
"Linna you idiot! What happened that made you go in there? Mason's in there too you know!" Nene cried.
"Huff...Friggin boomer guards are killing someone in there. She let me escape, but I don't think she'll last long."
"Yes, I can see the logic in playing a superhero in that hell-hole. Now let's bail before the ADP comes and blames all this on us."
"B-But I thought the suited figure was.."
Linna, Priss and Nene looked at each other.
"A fake knightsaber?"
_______________________
Mackay sipped at his cocoa.
"Priss's last message...Perhaps they are too late. They're already out of direct range anyway, and I guess they'll just bring her body here..."
He grimaced, and slammed his fist upon the keypad.
"It's all my fault! If I wasn't idling, Priss would have lived, and Linna and Nene wouldn't be in danger!"
"What is it, Mackay? Is anyone in danger?"
The door slid open, and Sylia walked in briskly.
"Nene...Linna...They're all in mortal danger." Mackay stammered. "And all because of me! If I hadn't idled and gotten to drice the mobilepit, I'd have been there!"
Sylia put a comforting hand upon Mackay's shoulder.
"Look Mackay, you know you can't drive since the autopilot is gone to be fixed, and plus you know they'll manage well. After all, they are the Knightsabers."
"Yea, the knightsabers. But they're still mortal." Mackay grumbled. "And now that they're outta range, I can't even warn them of the danger."
"What danger?" Sylia's eyes widened.
Mackay said nothing, but pushed a portable screen towards Sylia. Beeps and buzzes of signals were being recorded and translated upon the screen.
"I believe these are the wavelengths emitted by a hardsuit..." Sylia started.
"Yes Sylia, but the signal lengths are different...Almost as though it's a knightsaber that's not Linna, Priss or Nene."
"...??? I don't get it, Mackay. There cannot be anyone imitating the Knightsabers."
"But what if there is...?"
Sylia staggered for a moment, then recovered herself while leaning against the wall.
"Prepare me for launch, Mackay."
________________________
Tamaritha checked the air prissure and resistance rate of the suit, then placed her collar and leapt into the air.
The rarefied air higher up made her huff and choke, but she kept going up to a certain cirrus cloud.
She stopped for a moment, hovering in the air.
"This should be the portal's location..."
Tamaritha stretched out a finger into the cloud.
The finger disappeared.
A smile of satisfaction was on her face as Tamaritha threw her body into the portal.
"Now to Megatokyo, Year 2040..."
________________________
I try to escape, but the boomers are too close together for me to hack a way through.
I reach my left arm into my backpack, and at the same time wave the chain around me to slice any boomer that comes too close.
A glowing metal is felt upon my fingers. Core material.
I focus all my energy upon it. Ten seconds is all I need...
My body starts glowing yellowish, then greenish. My helmet melts. and my hair is loose, flying everywhere.
I smile, and the boomers are almost touching me now. Bad move, you dunderheads, I tell them as I start walking.
Ten seconds are up. The boomers touch me, only to melt away into a metallic pool.
Sickly.
The stench chokes me. I walk through the window. Boomers follow me, but they are shattered to pieces as soon as they try to do the same.
I have often been told that science from a certain extent has the appearance of magic.
Maybe it is true, this is more supernatural than scientific.
Before I make my grand exit of walking into the sunset, I match my aura to Mason.
Mason sneers at me. But in the meantime he has already formed a theory inside his head.
I throw my head back and laugh. How stupid of him! I meant nothing by that!
As I walk towards the setting sun into my apartment, a new thought enters my head.
Mason's aura. something strange about it - gaps in them, almost as though parts of his body weren't as one.
Boomer Parts. Why hadn't I thought of that?
I sneer at him, and at the same time I realise that my words DID mean something after all.
_________________________
"Look Adrian. You're a civillian now, you're not even meant to be here! Get out before you are annihilated!"
Langley was fuming. First his mistress, now his daughter. What next - herself?
Adrian said nothing, but cradled Sara Estella's cold body.
"Wait a second...Adrian?"
Adrian looked up, his eyes lacking...human intelligence...
Adrian smiled. "Langley...our child is sick...Her birthday's tomorrow and she's sick today...IF she dies, then she'd never..."
"Oh, no..." Langley broke down, and sobbed.
"..She won't be able to greet her birthday..."
"Please stop, Adrian...I'm sorry about the child...I know I shoudn't have killed her..."
Sanity returned in Adrian's eyes. "You...Killed her?! You mean..."
"Yes, I did...Now please stop it!" Langley was almost ready to slit anyone's throat.
"You had an abortion? Then how come..."
"Then how come WHAT?" Langley's voice was dangerously low, and rasping.
"How come she grew up, and lived until now...?"
_________________________
Workers crowded around a metal box that was admitted through the repair sections. A fault with the programming, it stated on the label.
The worker in charge scratched his head. No faults were ever reported with this particular model stated...Or was this the start of it?
It was strange, the worker thought, how all the boomers seem faultless in the plans and the sample models, but tend to go rogue in the production models.
Perhaps it was the difference in mass-production and hand-tuned samples. Perhaps there was an error after all in the plan that they had omitted to test for.
The worker shook his head as he inserted a crowbar between the gaps in the metal sheets and started pulling it apart.
"Hey watch it! That boomer's a mini OL!" one of his co-workers shouted. "If we accidently scratch her nails or something, she'll go rogue for it!"
A few chuckled over the crude joke, but none of the others laughed. After all, waitress boomers went rogue as soon as they stuck theur tongue out in the air.
Who knows what this boomer will be triggered to rogue activity by?
The crowbar worked, and the workers peered into the box.
A soft orange glow was surrounding a small childish figure, and the huddled figure opened its eyes and smiled.
Flames of orange hair coiled and stretched as the child stood up and walked out of the box.
The workers stood open-mouthed as the child took purple crystals out of a pouch she carried and sprinkled them upon the other boomers in the facility.
The boomers rose and whirred into life.
The child smiled, and the workers took the hint and fled into secure chambers.
______________________
The red-haired boomer stood in front of the Chairman.
"Quincey,"
Linna slammed into the boomer, again and again, finally breaking off the link between the core and the K-suit.
"Yes, I did it!" She yelled as she fished out the terrified ADP official and set him down on the ground.
Linna switched to communicate with Mackay.
"Mackay, where is Priss? Tell her I am going there!"
"She should be around the outside of GENOM tower - last transmission was almost an hour ago, when she arrived on the scene."
Linna jumped over a three-storey building and soared into the sky.
"Wait for me Priss! I am coming your way!"
______________
The battery was dead three seconds ago, and Priss could not move.
Strike after strike, the boomer attacked her, cracking her helmet and almost crushing her body against the wall.
"Looks like I end here, Sylia. I wonder if you heard my last message."
Priss groaned as she gritted her teeth against yet another strike the boomer made, which created massive gashes upon her hardsuit.
Soon, the suit will give way, and...
_____________
"Okay Mackay, Where is Priss and Linna?" Nene asked over the comm.
"They should be around the GENOM tower...Whoa? A message from Priss? I'llcheck this out, Nene, but it's still from the same location
as I told you - just go there for now."
Nene smiled, and ran to the tower. People shoved past each other to see the red Knightsaber in action, and Nene could not help but feel
like a celebrity.
_____________
"How much of Magitech do you own?"
Tienx-Langley took out the floppy disks and looked at Mason - No, Brian Mason, the professor and once fanatic of Dr Stingray.
"I own about half - a quarter of Magitech's employees are my own agents. Any of these names familiar?"
Tienx-Langley threw a list upon Mason's hands, then drew a cigarrette case.
"Do you fancy Kent? They're hard to get nowadays."
Mason hardly heard her question - he was too busy staring at the list of the names and blaming himself for the lack of security.
"What is it?"
"I asked if smoking was acceptable upon your code of behaviour which you so rigouriously place upon yourself -
surely a cigarrette could do no harm?"
Mason started. How did she know what I was thinking?
"I see Kent is not favourable to your perception of good and bad. Oh well, you don't know what you're missing out on."
"What exactly do you want?" Mason was fuming, ready to strike out at any moment.
"The money of course, to hush this up." Tienx-Langley smiled as she blew out a long wisp of smoke upon his face.
Mason pulled a disgusted face, and threw a bundle of notes upon the desk, which Tienx-Langley gleefully scraped up.
After packing it into her backpack, she turned around to leave.
"May I ask what you will use it for?" Mason called after her.
Tienx-Langley looked back and smiled. "Although I may be almost equalling you in brains, Professor, I am still young - I need pocket
money to buy a jewel set I always wanted - the chiefmost jewel, of course, being..."
The door slid open, and an army of boomers and humans came in, aiming machine guns upon Tienx-Langley.
Mason smiled. The table was turned now, and he could laugh in her face.
"Why don't you stay for a moment longer? I do have some lovely Scotch tea."
I will take over from now, Langley.
I know, I have been observant of it as per your commands, Langley.
I turn around to respond to Mason's comment. Icy flames are now dancing in my eyes;
I glare at him for giving counterfeit money to Langley.
"Please do not make the mistake of assuming that I will give the disks up without a struggle."
The evil cobra smiled. "Of course you may display your struggle."
The ring of boomer and man moved closer and closer.
I take out my weapon, and slice the ones nearest me in three swipes. The surprise must have been great; it looked as though they
expected me to use a laser gun or hand-to-hand combat, not a weapon that could practically aim to targets behind me.
I feel lucky that the ones nearest me are boomers - If I saw blood spilt on the floor, I'd probably cry.
________________
Miraka stepped upon the pedal hard while Lionel read some book outside the door.
"Maybe it wasn't supposed to be like this, Maybe its meaning is not something shown to be true or not...
Maybe it wasn't so, maybe..."
Miraka raged. "How many maybes are there, Maybe-man? Bloody hell will you stop reading that bloody romance?!?"
"It's not some romance, Miraka, it's the politics record of speeches made recently." Lionel resonded.
"Oh, so the secretaries are now still in the conference reciting every soppy part of Tamaritha's
love life while she lies in the hospital room still in a coma?"
"Maybe, but they'll get to her current state, make decisions and discuss those dicisions in the end."
"I wonder if anyone ever listened to a single word Tamaritha said about the whole arrangement! The poor child, she was never happy with
this whole arrangement - no she wasn't! She was never happy, poor chid! Does anyone care?!"
"Don't get so worked up about it. After all, she IS in a coma."
Miraka sighed. "Yeah you're right. She isn't worked up about it herself anyway, so I guess I
shouldn't bump into other people's affairs."
________________
IT was almost too late when Nene ran into Priss.
"PRISS! ARE YOU OKAY??" Nene yelled. Did her arm move?
Priss opened her eyes. Nene. Sylia. She does care, after all. She can't just forget about...
"C'mon Priss, Get outta here while I fight the boomer!"
Priss's face was burning with embarrassment. How did everything get down to this? Saved by a kid
whom she despised! Life, so full of surprises...
"The spare battery...catch!"
Priss caught it with some effort, and inserted it with some difficulty.
Nene fused into the boomer, found the core and smashed it with ease.
Priss groaned. Why hadn't she thought of it?
________________
When Linna finally arrived at the other side of the tower, she heard gunshots.
"Wha...?" Linna looked up to see a bunch of security guards, man and boomer, surrounding a suited figure that was using a weapon to keep them at bay, and in the background...Mason himself.
Linna flew up to the level and approached the glass. Her cutters flicked out and sliced the glass deftly into shards that tinkled as they fell down.
________________
"Kiyaaaa!!!"
Tamaritha woke up, her body hot and slick with sweat. Had she been dreaming?
She seriously hoped so as she changed out of the gown into normal clothes, and slipped a Glock into her coat as she turned the door handle and stepped out into the dark corridor.
Tamaritha sighed, and reassured herself that it really was a dream.
She flicked on the switch.
Adrian was there, cradling Sara Estella in his arms. Sara Estella's face and body had a bluish colour, and blood...trickling from her lips, a crimson puddle spilling out unto the floor...
Tamaritha staggered, and covered her forehead.
Deja vu... it was a frightful thing. A dream come true - it just had to be a nightmare.
Another door opened, and Langley stepped out.
Trembling, Tamaritha loaded her Glock and held it level to Adrian's head.
Langley gasped, and put her hand to her mouth.
"I...I can explain this. I believe you can too, Langley." Adrian said, smiling weakly.
His voice had gone rash, and he was trembling too.
Langley closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. This time, she was calm.
"Tamaritha, I do not think you should be here. Why don't you fly to Tokyo? Tienx is waiting,"
Tamaritha nodded, and lowered her hand.
"I'll get you for this," she snarled, suddenly turned and ran down the corridor.
________________
Mason smiled. A foolish Knightsaber had just walked into his trap, and the fun was about to begin.
Upon entering, the Knightsaber hesistated.
"No, this girl isn't part of your pack, is she?" Mason asked the green knightsaber.
She chose to ignore him and went straight into the fight to back the girl up. This one was also quite efficient, cutting up as as many of the guards as they came in.
But they are only human after all, and they will soon tire.
Or will they?
_________________
Thalassa was sitting atop her desk, playing jacks when the phone rang.
She pressed the button, and hastily answered.
"Unit Minus Netherlands branch, Development Centre. Thalassa speaking - how may I help you?"
"This is from Magitech Tokyo, and my name is Keiko. The cargo has been dispatched per your orders." the voice on the other end responded.
Thalassa smiled as she caught two pieces in the air.
"Ah, Keiko, it's been a long time since I last saw you! So how's it going?"
"Oh, so-so. Not as Kosher as I'd like it, but you gotta bend the rules a little sometimes."
"I see. So the job has been done?"
"Admirably. It was a classic. Wish you were here to see it being done."
"Thank you! After all, it nearly cost us a whole department, never mind countless lives for us.
We do need our little revenge."
"Well, wasn't Unit Minus created by a certain group of women craving venegence?"
Thalassa was silent. In fact, she was so shocked, she dropped a piece and it rolled under her desk.
Keiko on the other hand, took the hint.
"Er, I guess I'll call you back later. Bye!"
"Bye." She responded sullenly, and pressed the button to hang up.
She groaned, and thanked her lucky stars that she still had an old model for a phone.
And most important of all, that the other side could not see her face.
___________________
Priss slapped Nene's back.
"Thanks kiddo. You...saved my life, and I am grateful for it."
Nene smiled, perhaps even gloating a little.
"You baka! Whaddya think friends are for? Anywayz, I see Leon-peon in the distance...We better bail!
Otherwise they might catch onto what we've been up to and start 'pon on it. I wonder why they take so long sometimes, though I am part of the frustration myself..."
The two darted around some alleyways, then stopped for a rest.
Priss was suddenly thoughtful. "Hey, Nene...?"
"What is it?"
"When you joined the Knightsabers, you already were an employee of the AD Police, right?"
Nene sighed. "No, I joined about the same time. If I was there already, I wouldn't be the same freelance hacker that got Sylia's invite."
"I see. Would you have quitted either if you already were joined to one? I know how dangerous your position is for some 18 yr-old kiddo."
"Yea, barely drinking age. But Like you and Linna, giving up the hoopla of my life is...well, stupid I guess."
Both were silent for a while, then Nene spoke up again.
"Hey Priss, although we really shouldn't ask each other too many questions, it seems I never got the chance to ask you why you wanted to be a Knightsaber.
Really, I wonder what your reason was...everyone got to tell at one stage except you."
Priss leant against the wall and looked up to the sky. "Well, it was a combo of the two pet hates - the boomers and the ADP."
"I see...Hey Priss, did you ever hate me because I am an ADP official?"
"Not really, but at one stage I was a little uneasy - you're just a kid, and you could well be betraying us as you do with the ADP now..."
A crash of glass smashing was heard, and a scream over the comm.
Priss and Nene turned simultaneously towards the tower. A suited figure was falling.
The same thoughts rushed into their heads.
They nodded in compromise, and leapt towards the tower.
______________________
I am falling. The ground is rushing up at incredible speeds and I can do nothing to stop it - wait one moment, maybe I CAN do something!
I concentrate on my body force, and direct it so that I am rising up once more.
As I rise up again, I curse myself for being so careless. The Green one's clumsy method of hand-to-hand combat should have told me something about stepping back.
After all, I should've guessed from her weapons - cutters are distanced combat weapons, designed to ward off enemies.
I groan as I re-enter the chamber, and only see the Green one helplessly fighting the guards, with the bird already flown out of the nest.
I rush in, my chain reflecting silvery light as it slices through the guards and making a clean-cut path to the Green one.
I focus on matching her aura patterns, then send a short message:
The Green one starts, and is distracted long enough for a boomer to grab hold of her left arm. I slice the boomer's arm off.
This time, the Green one understood, nodded, and flew out the window.
Now that I got her out of the mess, I faced tens of boomer guards. Although I make tens of them fall to the ground each time I attack, more come in throgh the doors.
What to do, what to do...
_______________________
Linna was lowering herself, one-two-three levels down when she met up with Nene and Priss.
"Linna you idiot! What happened that made you go in there? Mason's in there too you know!" Nene cried.
"Huff...Friggin boomer guards are killing someone in there. She let me escape, but I don't think she'll last long."
"Yes, I can see the logic in playing a superhero in that hell-hole. Now let's bail before the ADP comes and blames all this on us."
"B-But I thought the suited figure was.."
Linna, Priss and Nene looked at each other.
"A fake knightsaber?"
_______________________
Mackay sipped at his cocoa.
"Priss's last message...Perhaps they are too late. They're already out of direct range anyway, and I guess they'll just bring her body here..."
He grimaced, and slammed his fist upon the keypad.
"It's all my fault! If I wasn't idling, Priss would have lived, and Linna and Nene wouldn't be in danger!"
"What is it, Mackay? Is anyone in danger?"
The door slid open, and Sylia walked in briskly.
"Nene...Linna...They're all in mortal danger." Mackay stammered. "And all because of me! If I hadn't idled and gotten to drice the mobilepit, I'd have been there!"
Sylia put a comforting hand upon Mackay's shoulder.
"Look Mackay, you know you can't drive since the autopilot is gone to be fixed, and plus you know they'll manage well. After all, they are the Knightsabers."
"Yea, the knightsabers. But they're still mortal." Mackay grumbled. "And now that they're outta range, I can't even warn them of the danger."
"What danger?" Sylia's eyes widened.
Mackay said nothing, but pushed a portable screen towards Sylia. Beeps and buzzes of signals were being recorded and translated upon the screen.
"I believe these are the wavelengths emitted by a hardsuit..." Sylia started.
"Yes Sylia, but the signal lengths are different...Almost as though it's a knightsaber that's not Linna, Priss or Nene."
"...??? I don't get it, Mackay. There cannot be anyone imitating the Knightsabers."
"But what if there is...?"
Sylia staggered for a moment, then recovered herself while leaning against the wall.
"Prepare me for launch, Mackay."
________________________
Tamaritha checked the air prissure and resistance rate of the suit, then placed her collar and leapt into the air.
The rarefied air higher up made her huff and choke, but she kept going up to a certain cirrus cloud.
She stopped for a moment, hovering in the air.
"This should be the portal's location..."
Tamaritha stretched out a finger into the cloud.
The finger disappeared.
A smile of satisfaction was on her face as Tamaritha threw her body into the portal.
"Now to Megatokyo, Year 2040..."
________________________
I try to escape, but the boomers are too close together for me to hack a way through.
I reach my left arm into my backpack, and at the same time wave the chain around me to slice any boomer that comes too close.
A glowing metal is felt upon my fingers. Core material.
I focus all my energy upon it. Ten seconds is all I need...
My body starts glowing yellowish, then greenish. My helmet melts. and my hair is loose, flying everywhere.
I smile, and the boomers are almost touching me now. Bad move, you dunderheads, I tell them as I start walking.
Ten seconds are up. The boomers touch me, only to melt away into a metallic pool.
Sickly.
The stench chokes me. I walk through the window. Boomers follow me, but they are shattered to pieces as soon as they try to do the same.
I have often been told that science from a certain extent has the appearance of magic.
Maybe it is true, this is more supernatural than scientific.
Before I make my grand exit of walking into the sunset, I match my aura to Mason.
Mason sneers at me. But in the meantime he has already formed a theory inside his head.
I throw my head back and laugh. How stupid of him! I meant nothing by that!
As I walk towards the setting sun into my apartment, a new thought enters my head.
Mason's aura. something strange about it - gaps in them, almost as though parts of his body weren't as one.
Boomer Parts. Why hadn't I thought of that?
I sneer at him, and at the same time I realise that my words DID mean something after all.
_________________________
"Look Adrian. You're a civillian now, you're not even meant to be here! Get out before you are annihilated!"
Langley was fuming. First his mistress, now his daughter. What next - herself?
Adrian said nothing, but cradled Sara Estella's cold body.
"Wait a second...Adrian?"
Adrian looked up, his eyes lacking...human intelligence...
Adrian smiled. "Langley...our child is sick...Her birthday's tomorrow and she's sick today...IF she dies, then she'd never..."
"Oh, no..." Langley broke down, and sobbed.
"..She won't be able to greet her birthday..."
"Please stop, Adrian...I'm sorry about the child...I know I shoudn't have killed her..."
Sanity returned in Adrian's eyes. "You...Killed her?! You mean..."
"Yes, I did...Now please stop it!" Langley was almost ready to slit anyone's throat.
"You had an abortion? Then how come..."
"Then how come WHAT?" Langley's voice was dangerously low, and rasping.
"How come she grew up, and lived until now...?"
_________________________
Workers crowded around a metal box that was admitted through the repair sections. A fault with the programming, it stated on the label.
The worker in charge scratched his head. No faults were ever reported with this particular model stated...Or was this the start of it?
It was strange, the worker thought, how all the boomers seem faultless in the plans and the sample models, but tend to go rogue in the production models.
Perhaps it was the difference in mass-production and hand-tuned samples. Perhaps there was an error after all in the plan that they had omitted to test for.
The worker shook his head as he inserted a crowbar between the gaps in the metal sheets and started pulling it apart.
"Hey watch it! That boomer's a mini OL!" one of his co-workers shouted. "If we accidently scratch her nails or something, she'll go rogue for it!"
A few chuckled over the crude joke, but none of the others laughed. After all, waitress boomers went rogue as soon as they stuck theur tongue out in the air.
Who knows what this boomer will be triggered to rogue activity by?
The crowbar worked, and the workers peered into the box.
A soft orange glow was surrounding a small childish figure, and the huddled figure opened its eyes and smiled.
Flames of orange hair coiled and stretched as the child stood up and walked out of the box.
The workers stood open-mouthed as the child took purple crystals out of a pouch she carried and sprinkled them upon the other boomers in the facility.
The boomers rose and whirred into life.
The child smiled, and the workers took the hint and fled into secure chambers.
______________________
The red-haired boomer stood in front of the Chairman.
"Quincey,"