"Come on, I really need your help!" Priss pleaded to Linna.
"I'll help you when you tell me what you did!" Linna responded.
"It's not important, I just need to lay low for a while. The cops are watching my trailer; I just need some money. Please, dammit!" Priss yelled in Linna's face. Figuring she would find out eventually, Linna reached into her pocket and handed her a small wad of notes.
"There. That should be enough money to keep you for a few days. Are you sure you don't want to tell me?" Linna asked.
"I'm sure. Thanks." Priss replied, rushing out of the room and calling out a faint, "bye!" as she left Linna's apartment and walked back down the street.
*=*
"She said what?" Sylia asked in a slightly strained tone.
"She said not to worry, it was all a misunderstanding and she just had to lay low for a while." Linna repeated, "And that she wouldn't be able to go on any missions for a few days."
Sylia started to pace anxiously up and down; "I don't have time for you girls to be wandering off in all directions trying to avoid being arrested!" Sylia said, "What would happen if she was caught and put in jail, she wouldn't be able to fight and then there would be no jails for her to be in because there would be no Tokyo!" Linna was more than a little scared by this ranting performance.
"It's ok, Sylia. I'm sure Priss will be fine. No cop will catch her. And in the meantime you've still got me." Linna said consolingly.
Sylia sat down and rested her head in her hands, "I guess you're right." She admitted.
*=*
Priss leaned against the wall, panting for breath. She cast a furtive look back around the corner to make sure she had lost them. She had been walking out of the supermarket when a patrol cop had recognized her and started the chase. She felt as if she had been running for hours.
Having recovered a little she stood up, looking around to try and make sense of her surroundings. Some of it looked kind of familiar, and she began walking in the general direction of Nene's apartment building. Nene would be able to get in touch with that stupid cop that was always chasing Priss, Leon. Then Priss could tell him what really happened and she would no longer have to spend her days running away from cops down gritty alleys. She got enough of that in her normal life.
*=*
"I need you to call your little cop friend for me" Priss answered Nene. "I need to tell someone on the inside the truth!"
"And what truth would that be?" Nene said, slightly teasingly. "What did you do- I mean what did you allegedly do?" she quickly changed upon seeing Priss' violent reaction.
"I'm not going to tell you. At least not if you make me peer through the crack in the door, can't you undo the safety chain?"
"No, not until I know you're not going to hurt me!" Nene said plaintively.
"Fine, fine, just give me the damn number!" Priss said vehemently.
Nene quickly shoved a small piece of paper through the crack in the door. "There you go," she said. "You're sure the police aren't following you? I don't want to go from being your team-mate to cellmate." Priss grunted a response and took out her phone.
"Thanks Nene" she said as she wandered back down the hall, dialling as she went. She impatiently waited as the ringing tone sounded in her ear, over and over and over as she climbed down the stairs. "No god damn answer" she growled after the phone had rung a dozen times. She looked back to the piece of paper in her hand. -Work Number- That looked promising. Quickly she dialled, and after two rings she heard a strong, masculine voice, "McNichols here,"
"Its Priss"
"Priss?"
"You know who I am, you've been following me for weeks"
"Jesus. There's a warrant out for you, you know, what the hell did you do?"
"That's why I called. I want to tell you what happened without a gun barrel pointing down my throat"
"Word's come from above. You're classified as highly dangerous. Shoot on sight. ADP officers aren't even supposed to be informed about non-boomer stuff like this! But still we've been told to look out for you."
"Shit. I'll get those bastards."
"Who? Maybe I'll talk to you if you just tell me what the hell is going on here!"
"I can't say here. The call is probably already being traced. Just meet me at cafe by the train station tomorrow at noon. I'll tell you what happened, but come alone. Alone."
Leon was silent for a few moments. This was exactly what he had been hoping to happen. Except without the shoot on sight order. If he got found out, he would be in it deep. He just wouldn't let them find out. "Ok. But you better tell me what's going on!" he concluded, hanging up the phone and going back to his paperwork.
Priss walked on down the street away from Nene's building at a brisk pace. Tomorrow, her crappy life would finally be restored to her.
*=*
"That's not what happened!" Priss yelled, standing up from the small table she shared with Leon in the coffee shop next to the train station.
"Well then tell me what happened, I'm just trying to understand!" Leon yelled back, also standing up. The two of them looked around, noticing the strange looks from the other patrons of the shop. Quickly they sat down and continued in slightly quieter, but still as angry tones.
"Let me spell it out for you, Mr. Cop, I . was . set . up. Understand? Comprende-vous?" Priss said in a condescending voice that really irritated Leon.
With a great, great amount of effort he brought himself under control and replied, "I get it. Who framed you?"
"Genom" Priss' answer was abrupt.
"Why? Why would Genom want you dead? I realise they're screwing all of us but what did you do?" Leon asked, exasperated with having to pull every word out of her.
Priss took a deep breath and then sighed. She thought about how much she should tell him, especially without revealing that she was a Knight Saber. "I broke into one of their labs. That much is true. I didn't kill any guards like they said, but I stole some..." she paused, trying to think of how to phrase it without revealing too much, "special files. They revealed some things about why the boomers have been going rogue."
Leon's eyes widened, "you mean there's a specific cause? Something that could be neutralised and make my job one hell of a lot easier? If we could do that, we could get rid of rogue boomers really easily, maybe even stop them going rogue in the first place. We could stop those damn Kight Sabers- "
"Would you just shut up for one minute?" Priss interrupted. "Look, you need to talk to your superiors, explain what happened, I found incriminating evidence against Genom and they framed me for triple homicide of the guards and then blew up the lab, saying I left hidden explosives. Understand? Now tell them." She said finally.
"Wait a minute." Leon stopped her, "I can't do that they'll have me in a kennel for months! I can't talk to them, especially not because I can't explain how I know without confessing I violated a shoot on sight order! There's nothing I can do!" he yelled.
Priss steadied herself. It was going to be one of those. Oh well, she had done it before. She leaned over the table, inhaling deeply and putting her mouth millimetres from Leon's ear. She said in a soft, sugared voice that few had heard from her before, "You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours. You do this for me and maybe I'll do you something in return," she breathed, lightly brushing her fingertips against his thigh under the table. The feel of her soft breath on the side of his face made Leon's knees go all a-tremble. He slowly nodded his head, "I'll see what I can do," was all he could say in his shaking voice. As Priss leaned back with a self-satisfied twist to her lips Leon shook his head, trying to recall exactly what had just happened. oh shit he thought this is gonna be hard.
Priss' face resumed its usual stony expression. "Do what you can, but for now I gotta split. Tell Nene whatever happens and she'll be able to reach me. Later." Leon stood up as Priss did and before leaving Priss walked up to him, standing inches away. Lips parted slightly, breathing heavily, she leaned forward until she was a hair's breadth from his face. Priss paused for a moment, allowing Leon to fully suffer, before smiling one of her rare smiles and turning sharply to walk out of the cafe and away, never looking back. Leon stood stock still for a few moments before he could gather himself to leave. He knew he had just seen a side of Priss very few people had ever seen before. And he liked it.
*=*
Priss kicked the overweight mall security in the stomach, causing him to double over sharply and then fall heavily to the ground. By the time he hit the floor Priss had delivered two more punches to the face of the fat cop's swooning partner. Stupid mall security. Don't even carry guns she thought as she hooked the third and final rent-a-cop with her left fist, sending him spinning like a top to the ground. A crowd was starting to gather and Priss had to push and shove her way through to get out as another half a dozen mall cops came running. She had been stupid to come here, she should have known she would be recognised. That was all she could think as she sprinted through the mall, sliding on the slick tiled floor as she turned corner after corner and finally kicked her way out of a secluded fire exit. It leaded to a small back alley full of trash she had to vault to get out. The police had probably been called by now. She wished more then anything that her bike wasn't at her trailer under constant police surveillance.
She thought she had finally gotten away and was checking to make sure when her phone rung, making her jump almost out of her skin. Irritably she flipped it open and stared menacingly at the picture of Nene on the screen. "What is it Nene?" she demanded.
"You don't need to be hostile! Anyway, I just called to say that, Romanova, girl genius, teamed with Leon-poo, has gotten you a meeting with the chief of ADP, Nick Roland. You can bow and praise me later, but right now you have to get over to the Totem Pole. On the double, missy! "
Priss would have yelled something at Nene for that if she hadn't been so grateful for the meeting. All this running was really tiring her out. And sleeping in another dumpster like she did last night, while not a new experience to her, was not a pleasant one. "How long do I have do get there?" she asked Nene hurriedly.
"Twenty minutes. And you better not be late!" Nene said.
"Shit." Priss said, half to herself, "That's at least an hour's walk from here." Then she spied an old bicycle propped up against the wall of the alley. I haven't ridden a bicycle since I was twelve she thought. "Later, Nene" she said, absently putting her phone away. She picked up the bike and tentatively mounted it. Well, you know what they say. You never forget
*=*
Panting for breath, Priss leaped off of the bike and left it to clatter on the floor. She looked at her watch. Four minutes late she thought. She pushed open the doors to the Totem Pole. Priss grabbed the arm of the nearest person and said hurriedly, "Where can I find Nick Roland?"
"Twelfth Floor," the startled officer replied. Without another word Priss was off, over to the elevator. Broken. No use. Damn. She ran over to the stairs and sprinted up, taking them three at a time. Ten more floors she thought with pain as she reached the second level.
When Priss reached the twelfth floor she had a stitch so big she thought it would swallow her. She leaned heavily against the wall, trying to summon the energy to walk across the level. Then she heard a familiar voice shout, "She'll be here Nick, just give her a minute!" She saw Leon standing with an old man outside of an office. Instead of shouting she just walked over, coming up behind Leon and putting one hand on his shoulder to quiet him.
"I'm here, I'm here. If you stupid pricks weren't practically sitting on my place and my bike I might have been here on time." Nick stared at her for a few seconds before blinking.
"Come into my office. Your lucky I agreed to this, I could get in some deep shit for it." he said gruffly. The three of them walked into his office, Leon shutting the door behind them. "You can go now Leon, your work is done," Nick said to the ADP officer. Leon started to object but was cut off by a sharp, "Now! I don't have the time or patience for one of your fits."
"Now just what do you mean by that!" Leon said angrily, he would have said more but as cut off once again by, "Go. Now. And that's an order! Do you want me to fire your ass!" Grumbling to himself, Leon finally quieted and strode out the door, almost slamming the door behind him.
"Now," Nick continued in a more patient voice, "if we could get down to you telling me how those guards ended up dead if you didn't kill them."
"Genom killed them." Priss answered.
"Genom killed they're own gaurds just to frame you? And lemme guess - they blew up the labs as well!" Nick said sarcastically, "You're asking me to believe that?"
"Yes." Priss replied, "I got evidence that is not only against them but is also needed for their key project. They wil do everything possible to stop me from showing that information to anyone in authority. They will kill me!"
"Fine. Let's just say I believe you for now. But what do you want me to do, it's not as if I can put you in a safehouse or something if it's us we're protecting us from!" Nick shouted.
Priss drew a zip disk out of her pocket and handed it to him, "Take this. I have copies. Make copies of that and give one to every authority figure you can find. Everyone. Just one or two won't work, but there have to be some that aren't being payed by Genom to keep quiet. Show it on a big screen in downtown Tokyo just do what you need to to get this seen!" With that she turned and walked out of his office and headed for the stairs.
"Wait!" Nick yelled behind her, "What about the incriminating evidence aganst you? You could still get shot even if people do see this!"
Priss simply raised her hand in acknowledgement without turning around and dissapeared down the stairs.
*=*
~ A long time later ~
"Thank you, Ms. Priscilla Asagiri, for revealing to all of Tokyo the true corruption of Genom. I, chief of the AD and normal Police, award you this medal of honour as a token of our gratitude." The chief of police said as he hung the medal around Priss' neck. Priss bowed deeply, and then turned to the crowd and bowed again. Then she walked offstage, down to her bike, and drove home to her trailer in a Genom-free Tokyo.
"I'll help you when you tell me what you did!" Linna responded.
"It's not important, I just need to lay low for a while. The cops are watching my trailer; I just need some money. Please, dammit!" Priss yelled in Linna's face. Figuring she would find out eventually, Linna reached into her pocket and handed her a small wad of notes.
"There. That should be enough money to keep you for a few days. Are you sure you don't want to tell me?" Linna asked.
"I'm sure. Thanks." Priss replied, rushing out of the room and calling out a faint, "bye!" as she left Linna's apartment and walked back down the street.
*=*
"She said what?" Sylia asked in a slightly strained tone.
"She said not to worry, it was all a misunderstanding and she just had to lay low for a while." Linna repeated, "And that she wouldn't be able to go on any missions for a few days."
Sylia started to pace anxiously up and down; "I don't have time for you girls to be wandering off in all directions trying to avoid being arrested!" Sylia said, "What would happen if she was caught and put in jail, she wouldn't be able to fight and then there would be no jails for her to be in because there would be no Tokyo!" Linna was more than a little scared by this ranting performance.
"It's ok, Sylia. I'm sure Priss will be fine. No cop will catch her. And in the meantime you've still got me." Linna said consolingly.
Sylia sat down and rested her head in her hands, "I guess you're right." She admitted.
*=*
Priss leaned against the wall, panting for breath. She cast a furtive look back around the corner to make sure she had lost them. She had been walking out of the supermarket when a patrol cop had recognized her and started the chase. She felt as if she had been running for hours.
Having recovered a little she stood up, looking around to try and make sense of her surroundings. Some of it looked kind of familiar, and she began walking in the general direction of Nene's apartment building. Nene would be able to get in touch with that stupid cop that was always chasing Priss, Leon. Then Priss could tell him what really happened and she would no longer have to spend her days running away from cops down gritty alleys. She got enough of that in her normal life.
*=*
"I need you to call your little cop friend for me" Priss answered Nene. "I need to tell someone on the inside the truth!"
"And what truth would that be?" Nene said, slightly teasingly. "What did you do- I mean what did you allegedly do?" she quickly changed upon seeing Priss' violent reaction.
"I'm not going to tell you. At least not if you make me peer through the crack in the door, can't you undo the safety chain?"
"No, not until I know you're not going to hurt me!" Nene said plaintively.
"Fine, fine, just give me the damn number!" Priss said vehemently.
Nene quickly shoved a small piece of paper through the crack in the door. "There you go," she said. "You're sure the police aren't following you? I don't want to go from being your team-mate to cellmate." Priss grunted a response and took out her phone.
"Thanks Nene" she said as she wandered back down the hall, dialling as she went. She impatiently waited as the ringing tone sounded in her ear, over and over and over as she climbed down the stairs. "No god damn answer" she growled after the phone had rung a dozen times. She looked back to the piece of paper in her hand. -Work Number- That looked promising. Quickly she dialled, and after two rings she heard a strong, masculine voice, "McNichols here,"
"Its Priss"
"Priss?"
"You know who I am, you've been following me for weeks"
"Jesus. There's a warrant out for you, you know, what the hell did you do?"
"That's why I called. I want to tell you what happened without a gun barrel pointing down my throat"
"Word's come from above. You're classified as highly dangerous. Shoot on sight. ADP officers aren't even supposed to be informed about non-boomer stuff like this! But still we've been told to look out for you."
"Shit. I'll get those bastards."
"Who? Maybe I'll talk to you if you just tell me what the hell is going on here!"
"I can't say here. The call is probably already being traced. Just meet me at cafe by the train station tomorrow at noon. I'll tell you what happened, but come alone. Alone."
Leon was silent for a few moments. This was exactly what he had been hoping to happen. Except without the shoot on sight order. If he got found out, he would be in it deep. He just wouldn't let them find out. "Ok. But you better tell me what's going on!" he concluded, hanging up the phone and going back to his paperwork.
Priss walked on down the street away from Nene's building at a brisk pace. Tomorrow, her crappy life would finally be restored to her.
*=*
"That's not what happened!" Priss yelled, standing up from the small table she shared with Leon in the coffee shop next to the train station.
"Well then tell me what happened, I'm just trying to understand!" Leon yelled back, also standing up. The two of them looked around, noticing the strange looks from the other patrons of the shop. Quickly they sat down and continued in slightly quieter, but still as angry tones.
"Let me spell it out for you, Mr. Cop, I . was . set . up. Understand? Comprende-vous?" Priss said in a condescending voice that really irritated Leon.
With a great, great amount of effort he brought himself under control and replied, "I get it. Who framed you?"
"Genom" Priss' answer was abrupt.
"Why? Why would Genom want you dead? I realise they're screwing all of us but what did you do?" Leon asked, exasperated with having to pull every word out of her.
Priss took a deep breath and then sighed. She thought about how much she should tell him, especially without revealing that she was a Knight Saber. "I broke into one of their labs. That much is true. I didn't kill any guards like they said, but I stole some..." she paused, trying to think of how to phrase it without revealing too much, "special files. They revealed some things about why the boomers have been going rogue."
Leon's eyes widened, "you mean there's a specific cause? Something that could be neutralised and make my job one hell of a lot easier? If we could do that, we could get rid of rogue boomers really easily, maybe even stop them going rogue in the first place. We could stop those damn Kight Sabers- "
"Would you just shut up for one minute?" Priss interrupted. "Look, you need to talk to your superiors, explain what happened, I found incriminating evidence against Genom and they framed me for triple homicide of the guards and then blew up the lab, saying I left hidden explosives. Understand? Now tell them." She said finally.
"Wait a minute." Leon stopped her, "I can't do that they'll have me in a kennel for months! I can't talk to them, especially not because I can't explain how I know without confessing I violated a shoot on sight order! There's nothing I can do!" he yelled.
Priss steadied herself. It was going to be one of those. Oh well, she had done it before. She leaned over the table, inhaling deeply and putting her mouth millimetres from Leon's ear. She said in a soft, sugared voice that few had heard from her before, "You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours. You do this for me and maybe I'll do you something in return," she breathed, lightly brushing her fingertips against his thigh under the table. The feel of her soft breath on the side of his face made Leon's knees go all a-tremble. He slowly nodded his head, "I'll see what I can do," was all he could say in his shaking voice. As Priss leaned back with a self-satisfied twist to her lips Leon shook his head, trying to recall exactly what had just happened. oh shit he thought this is gonna be hard.
Priss' face resumed its usual stony expression. "Do what you can, but for now I gotta split. Tell Nene whatever happens and she'll be able to reach me. Later." Leon stood up as Priss did and before leaving Priss walked up to him, standing inches away. Lips parted slightly, breathing heavily, she leaned forward until she was a hair's breadth from his face. Priss paused for a moment, allowing Leon to fully suffer, before smiling one of her rare smiles and turning sharply to walk out of the cafe and away, never looking back. Leon stood stock still for a few moments before he could gather himself to leave. He knew he had just seen a side of Priss very few people had ever seen before. And he liked it.
*=*
Priss kicked the overweight mall security in the stomach, causing him to double over sharply and then fall heavily to the ground. By the time he hit the floor Priss had delivered two more punches to the face of the fat cop's swooning partner. Stupid mall security. Don't even carry guns she thought as she hooked the third and final rent-a-cop with her left fist, sending him spinning like a top to the ground. A crowd was starting to gather and Priss had to push and shove her way through to get out as another half a dozen mall cops came running. She had been stupid to come here, she should have known she would be recognised. That was all she could think as she sprinted through the mall, sliding on the slick tiled floor as she turned corner after corner and finally kicked her way out of a secluded fire exit. It leaded to a small back alley full of trash she had to vault to get out. The police had probably been called by now. She wished more then anything that her bike wasn't at her trailer under constant police surveillance.
She thought she had finally gotten away and was checking to make sure when her phone rung, making her jump almost out of her skin. Irritably she flipped it open and stared menacingly at the picture of Nene on the screen. "What is it Nene?" she demanded.
"You don't need to be hostile! Anyway, I just called to say that, Romanova, girl genius, teamed with Leon-poo, has gotten you a meeting with the chief of ADP, Nick Roland. You can bow and praise me later, but right now you have to get over to the Totem Pole. On the double, missy! "
Priss would have yelled something at Nene for that if she hadn't been so grateful for the meeting. All this running was really tiring her out. And sleeping in another dumpster like she did last night, while not a new experience to her, was not a pleasant one. "How long do I have do get there?" she asked Nene hurriedly.
"Twenty minutes. And you better not be late!" Nene said.
"Shit." Priss said, half to herself, "That's at least an hour's walk from here." Then she spied an old bicycle propped up against the wall of the alley. I haven't ridden a bicycle since I was twelve she thought. "Later, Nene" she said, absently putting her phone away. She picked up the bike and tentatively mounted it. Well, you know what they say. You never forget
*=*
Panting for breath, Priss leaped off of the bike and left it to clatter on the floor. She looked at her watch. Four minutes late she thought. She pushed open the doors to the Totem Pole. Priss grabbed the arm of the nearest person and said hurriedly, "Where can I find Nick Roland?"
"Twelfth Floor," the startled officer replied. Without another word Priss was off, over to the elevator. Broken. No use. Damn. She ran over to the stairs and sprinted up, taking them three at a time. Ten more floors she thought with pain as she reached the second level.
When Priss reached the twelfth floor she had a stitch so big she thought it would swallow her. She leaned heavily against the wall, trying to summon the energy to walk across the level. Then she heard a familiar voice shout, "She'll be here Nick, just give her a minute!" She saw Leon standing with an old man outside of an office. Instead of shouting she just walked over, coming up behind Leon and putting one hand on his shoulder to quiet him.
"I'm here, I'm here. If you stupid pricks weren't practically sitting on my place and my bike I might have been here on time." Nick stared at her for a few seconds before blinking.
"Come into my office. Your lucky I agreed to this, I could get in some deep shit for it." he said gruffly. The three of them walked into his office, Leon shutting the door behind them. "You can go now Leon, your work is done," Nick said to the ADP officer. Leon started to object but was cut off by a sharp, "Now! I don't have the time or patience for one of your fits."
"Now just what do you mean by that!" Leon said angrily, he would have said more but as cut off once again by, "Go. Now. And that's an order! Do you want me to fire your ass!" Grumbling to himself, Leon finally quieted and strode out the door, almost slamming the door behind him.
"Now," Nick continued in a more patient voice, "if we could get down to you telling me how those guards ended up dead if you didn't kill them."
"Genom killed them." Priss answered.
"Genom killed they're own gaurds just to frame you? And lemme guess - they blew up the labs as well!" Nick said sarcastically, "You're asking me to believe that?"
"Yes." Priss replied, "I got evidence that is not only against them but is also needed for their key project. They wil do everything possible to stop me from showing that information to anyone in authority. They will kill me!"
"Fine. Let's just say I believe you for now. But what do you want me to do, it's not as if I can put you in a safehouse or something if it's us we're protecting us from!" Nick shouted.
Priss drew a zip disk out of her pocket and handed it to him, "Take this. I have copies. Make copies of that and give one to every authority figure you can find. Everyone. Just one or two won't work, but there have to be some that aren't being payed by Genom to keep quiet. Show it on a big screen in downtown Tokyo just do what you need to to get this seen!" With that she turned and walked out of his office and headed for the stairs.
"Wait!" Nick yelled behind her, "What about the incriminating evidence aganst you? You could still get shot even if people do see this!"
Priss simply raised her hand in acknowledgement without turning around and dissapeared down the stairs.
*=*
~ A long time later ~
"Thank you, Ms. Priscilla Asagiri, for revealing to all of Tokyo the true corruption of Genom. I, chief of the AD and normal Police, award you this medal of honour as a token of our gratitude." The chief of police said as he hung the medal around Priss' neck. Priss bowed deeply, and then turned to the crowd and bowed again. Then she walked offstage, down to her bike, and drove home to her trailer in a Genom-free Tokyo.