BGC Episode 10: Two Faces
KABOOM!
The glass of the phone booth shattered, as Priss quickly covered her head and face with her arms. The flying debris of glass was shredding her brand new leather biker's outfit into strips. The impact of the explosion sent the phone booth falling toward the pavement.
"Oh shi…" Priss barely got her curse out from her mouth before she and the booth crashed into the pavement. She instantly felt a searing pain into her left thigh. "Ahh! Goddamned it!"
For a few heart-stopping seconds, she didn't move, then she tried to kick her way out of the booth, the pain in her leg made her scream. She thrashed with her arms, and felt her hands were being cut by what's left of the glass booth. With much shaking and trembling she stood up, pulled out the glass shard from her thigh, which made her bit her lower lip hard until it bled, and looked toward where she last heard the explosion.
About a block and half away, there stood a huge boomer. Ignoring the pain, she almost wanted to lash out at the boomer, which had a piece of a car door in its right hand. Then she stopped cold.
She forgot she wasn't wearing her hard suit.
The giant was about 12 feet high, a steely grayish blue of a grotesque creature, with heavily muscled arms and legs. One of the forearms had a huge gatling gun mounted in the place where usually a hand would be. The other had a tri-claw, looking sharp as surgical blades. On its back was some kind of backpack, Priss couldn't tell.
She stared at it for a second before she did what she thought was the best thing to do in this situation: she took 3 huge steps toward her bike, which she parked at the curb where the phone booth used to stand. She jumped on it, quickly kicked it in gear, and raced away from the scene. She could barely lift her hands, but she pressed the communicator's button.
"I've already got the report, meet me at the corner 4 blocks down!" Was all Sylia said before the image disappeared from the watch screen.
A loud gasp came from some of the bystanders, as Priss stole a look back.
The boomer was chasing her. Its jets in the back and legs were spewing orange crimson flame, thrusting it forward. As Priss shifted to higher gear, she felt herself getting weaker. She had to swerve and avoid that car, which she just raced by after running the red light, but the boomer smashed through the convertible. She stole another look, and looking forward again, she gritted her teeth, as her bike got on the freeway.
If the bleeding doesn't stop…Man, I would really hate it if the bastard gets me here!
She barely realized that she couldn't meet Sylia at the street corner under this situation.
The wind howled and she realized that she had no time to put on her helmet! She weaved and cut through the traffic, as the boomer made its own way through cars and trucks. She risked a glance back.
Some thing shot from the boomer, straight at her. She avoided it barely in time. "What the?" She thought she saw a blue tentacle, or an arm. She wasn't sure.
"Ahh!" She had to swerve hard to her left, because for some reason, the boomer had already landed right in front of her!
The bastard. Was it coming after me?
As Priss's bike crashed into the pavement, and she rolled and flipped painfully, she was dimly aware that something seemed to retract into the boomer's back as it landed. She closed her eyes, and lost consciousness.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"There is no time, I haven't got any reply from Priss. I'll be going first." Sylia yelled at the screen, before Linna could say anything, she shut it off. Suddenly, the door to the mobile pit slid open, and Nene, looking exhausted but relieved, hopped right in. Sylia had to allow herself to smile at that.
"I'm here, Sylia. Where is Priss?" Nene asked immediately as she started to take off her AD Police uniform clothes. "I got here as soon as I could."
"Two miles from here on the 4th free way." Sylia said, then she yelled toward the driver's seat in the front. "Mackie! Let's go! To where Priss' signal was last found.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"As you're well aware, we don't make such products ourselves, but…" The non-descriptive man in black glasses said grimly, standing across from him, Sylia, in her full suit, smiled sardonically.
Moments before the huge boomer blew up a big section of downtown Mega Tokyo, Sylia met the Genom "representative" in the dark alley near the AD Police station. "That should help you to relax." Said the man from Genom. "After all, if you need to run away, the AD Police can't really catch you, and around here, I wouldn't do anything that would jeopardize this meeting anyway…"
Sylia had already scouted the place out, and she received no information about any possible traps, either set by the AD Police, or Genom.
You never know, though. She silently cautioned herself.
"…As I was saying," The man continued. "Although we don't sell such things ourselves, there are some disgruntle employees, and others who may have stolen our technology, and applied it into military uses."
Sylia laughed coldly.
"Believe what you will." The man didn't flinch. "Here's the deal: we suspect the Super Boomer Largo, is still at large, but what worries us the most is not necessarily him or his new associates, one among which is the Chang group"
Sylia quickly stifled a gasp. Is it possible? Hu Ban and Largo?
"We are more concerned with the Origin. We think that there is another super boomer out there, who could be the source of all boomers, and that's the one we would like to deal with."
Sylia's eyes narrowed. She stared at the Genom operative. "I don't buy anything you just said. As for this Origin…" She winced, and then continued. "Why hire us? You and us aren't exactly friends."
"As I said before, our legitimate product don't go around killing people, so whatever you have destroyed we couldn't careless." The man adjusted his dark sunglasses. "But as for this case, we simply don't wish to spend our own resources to track down Largo, or the Origin. All we want is destroy the threat of another super boomer who could coordinate with the Orbital Satellite Weapons. The Origin itself, as far as we're concerned, has nothing to do with our current business operations. We're partly curious as to how it would affect the function of all the boomers if we get to study it…"
"Disgusting," Sylia muttered. Then she said: "So, what would the almighty Genom want us humble Knight Sabers do?"
"Take out Largo, bring the Origin to us." The man seemed to smile. "Or if you prefer, destroy them both."
Sylia just stared at him.
"Do we have a deal?" The man asked in a neutral tone.
"I'm sorry, but I simply don't trust you, or your company to deal with people fairly." She was smiling sarcastically under her helmet. "Not after last time."
The man was silent. "Very well. I'm sorry it didn't work out." He seemed to shrug, and turned around. After walking a few steps toward the Benz that parked at the entrance, he spoke slowly.
"It won't matter anyway. It will all be taken cared of. Good day, Ms. Stingray."
Sylia felt a strong shocking and tingling sensation shooting up and down her body. "What?" She barely realized the words came out of her mouth.
The man had already got in the car, and left.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Priss shook her head, and struggled to get herself off the pavement, with a shudder she stood up.
The huge monster was standing 15 feet away. It seemed to smile with all the teeth shown. Protruding from its back there were 8 leg/arm like things with a sharp single claw at the end of each one.
Priss frowned. The design looked familiar…
"I guess you've noticed my interesting design, Ms. Asagiri." The boomer spoke.
Priss was taken aback. She took a step backwards. "How…how did hell did you know my name?"
The boomer seemed to be unable to smile without its teeth bare. "Let's just say a certain friend of one of your friends, no, I mean one of your fellow teammates had a lot of interesting data in her head." It raised its claw arm, and the claws clanked as he closed his hand.
Priss' eyes narrowed. Who…?
The realization hit her like a tidal wave, which sent her reeling backwards. "You…you took Vision?" Priss' hands formed into fists. Blood from the cuts from the broken glass dripped from her hands.
The boomer snickered. "One of my fellow operatives did. She was more stealthy, and does a great make up."
Priss gritted her teeth. "You…you fucking bastard!"
The boomer started to walk toward her. The toothy smile grew bigger. "It's time to end this conversation, Ms. Priss Asagiri, or should I say, Blue Knight Saber?"
Priss looked around, she bit her lower lip. Damn it! Only if I have my suit…
* * * * * * * * * * *
Quincy stared at the report, then at Madigan.
"Why show me this? I told you this is no concern of mine." He threw the report on the table. It landed with a loud 'thud'. The sound resonated through out his large office. "These vigilantes can't harm us in anyway." He closed his eyes, and waved. "Take care of it." He leaned back in his chair.
"I already have the boomer in sector A-24 changing its testing program to extermination program." Madigan said hesitantly.
"Don't make me repeat myself."
Madigan shivered. "O…of course not. I deeply apologize." She bowed with her forehead close to the ground, and then she made a haste exit.
A deathly silent moment followed, before Quincy muttered.
"Stingray, huh? I thought Mason took care of all that, before he turned…" Quincy slowly opened his eyes. He stared at the report.
Origin. It is speculated that the daughter of the late Dr. Stingray could very well be the basis of his boomer design, in fact, some data suggests that perhaps she…"
He closed the data port, and sunk back into his chair.
The office was deathly quiet.
* * * * * * * * * * *
"Mon…Monster…" Priss struggled to retreat back from the boomer, but her left thigh was throbbing non-stop. After the adrenaline filled bike ride, and the hard fall, she felt her legs was turning into rubber.
The boomer took another step, and another, and another. It raised its gun hand, stopped in mid air, and then raised its claw hand instead. It now towers over Priss.
She didn't blink, but for one second, her friends the rest of the Sabers, and the orphanage flashed in her mind.
The claw was right above her head.
"Have a nice trip to hell, Blue Saber." The boomer growled.
"Fuck you." Priss seethed.
Something clicked in her mind, and she instinctively ducked her head. A split second later…
BOOM!
GRRRRRR!!!
Priss heard hard and loud steps retreating away from her. She fell on her back while trying to get further away.
"Priss-san!" Came Mackie's voice. She lifted her head to see the younger teenager in his specially designed armored suit. The missile cache on his suit was wide open, with more missiles ready, aimed at the monster boomer.
Thud! Ting!
Priss heard sounds of metal boot hitting the pavement. She smiled, and looked up again. The back view of her friend's suit made her almost want to cry. Almost. She stood up with great difficulty. "Sy…Sylia…"
"Don't move, Priss. Mackie will take you to the pit to get emergency treatment. Then he will take you to a hospital, and…" Sylia gestured, and Mackie moved. His footsteps made heavy clanking sounds against the pavement. "Are you alright, Priss?" Priss could feel Mackie's armored hands on her left arm. She leaned some of her weight on the pink Saber's shoulder.
"Like…like hell I'm going to a hospital." Priss growled. "Mackie, take me to the pit so I can change…"
"Priss." Sylia's warning voice came.
"Don't stop me." Priss said firmly. Holding onto Mackie's suit's mechanical arm, She made her way to the pit.
Sylia sighed, and then turned to the boomer. "New type, eh?" Her eyes narrowed. "All the same to me." She took a deep breath. "Let's go, Nene!" Taking the lead, she shot up in the air, and then bomber dived at the boomer, with her arm blade extended, she slashed at the boomer's left arm. It raised it's gatling gun and fired at her, she changed the direction of her jet burner, and moving from left to right, she landed and charged at the boomer's right side, while Nene, who hesitated for a second, raised her arm and fired her hand machine gun at the boomer's left.
Sylia was at the boomer's right side in an instant, her blade flashed, but the boomer ducked, and she missed, something shot out from the boomer's back, and Sylia found her waist in a pincer of two strange arms with single claws on each. As she turned her head, she saw Nene ducked, and almost awkwardly rolled out the way of another one of the boomer's strange arm.
"Yaaaa!" Nene screamed. "What's this? Get away!" Her machine gun blazed in the cold night. Not giving up on fighting, Sylia retracted her arm blade, and extended her explosion tube in her palms, and pressed firmly against the boomer's arms.
Bang!
She fell toward the ground, but she recovered in mid air, in time to see two of the boomer's arms fell. It stood up fully, and now she could see that it had 10 arms: two like normal human arms, 8 that came out from its back. These were more like tentacles. Now there were 6 left after Sylia blew two off.
"Watch out Sylia! I think this design is stolen from Reika's multi-legged tank!" Sylia looked up to see Linna landed right in front of her. Linna quickly added. "We have a big problem. I think they know who we really are."
Sylia was about to say something, when a blue lighting flashed to her side. She turned to see Priss in her suit. "It doesn't matter if they know or not, right now we need to take out this bastard!" Priss yelled.
"Can you fight?" Sylia said. She knew Priss couldn't see her concerned face.
"I'll be fine, let's finish this monster." Priss put up her fists.
"In that case," Sylia straightened herself fully. "Knight Sabers, action!"
Despite being hurt, Priss got to the monster's side first, dodging its bullets; each bullet was centimeters away from the visor of her helmet. "Hyaa!" She kicked the boomer in the stomach; the force knocked the boomer backwards slightly, before it swung its claws at her head. She ducked, and opening her palms up, laser beams shot out and lanced toward the boomer's chest.
"Grrrrr!" It growled, as the laser beams pierced its chest. It stumbled, but 4 of the 6 arms/tentacles shot out from its back and lashed at Priss. She jumped, but limped, and hopped over the first two, rolled out of the way of the 3rd, but the 4th one caught her and wrapped itself around her left thigh.
"Ahhh!" She screamed, and putting up her arm, she shot a couple spikes from her rail gun directly into the boomer's eyes. Its head snapped back by the force of the spikes puncturing through. The boomer covered its face with the two human-like arms. Linna jumped over Nene's head, raising her arms, firing two laser beams into the boomer's back. 4 of the 6 arms blew up, and with a swing of her head, her two cutting ribbons slashed off the remaining two.
"Go to hell, boomer!" Priss shouted, her right hand form into a fist, activating the knuckle bomber, as she gave her roundhouse hook directly to the boomer's head. With a loud explosion, the boomer lost the head, and was reeling backwards toward Nene.
"Eh…EH?" Nene seemed to freeze for a second, before she gave the thing a hard shove, which made it falling toward Priss. She gave it a good sidekick in the groin. It flew toward Sylia, groaning in pain. Raising her right arm with the laser blade extended, with one left to right swing, she cut the boomer in half. The two halves fell to the ground, still writhing.
Priss slowly walk toward the now disabled boomer. She raised her hand over its two pieces of body. Spikes shot out from her hand, and she nailed the thing to the ground. "Garbage…" She seethed under her breath, then collapsed and fell down.
"Priss, are you ok?" Nene and Linna immediately ran to her, Sylia shook her head as if in marvel. Then she came over as well. "Priss, I did tell you not to fight this time, didn't I?"
Taking off her helmet, Priss smiled. "You know I wouldn't miss it for the world."
Sylia opened her visor, sighing loudly but looking obviously relieved. "Looks like you will be fine, but we'll take you to the hospital now, otherwise they may have to amputate that leg! I simply can't imagine you singing with one leg!"
"Hey!" Priss protested.
"Alright, alright, let's go." Sylia said. The 4 turned toward the mobile pit when a figure came out from the mobile pit's shadow.
It was Leon.
"What…what are you doing here?" Priss said with somewhat hoarse voice. "Where were you?"
"Fuck it. I couldn't get here early." Leon looked like he wanted to kick himself. "Anyway, I do have one piece of good news. I think we've found where Miss Vision is being held." He nodded behind him. Kou stepped out from behind him.
Linna spoke suddenly. "You…you guys are working together?"
"I'll explain later. Let's get Miss Asagiri some medical attention first." Kou said quickly.
Everybody muttered an agreement. All got into the mobile pit, Mackie drove the pit (it's a truck) toward the hospital direction. It turned the corner and was gone.
The AD Police's siren could be heard in the distance…
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Priss muttered something under her breath as she tried to sit up in the hospital room. She looked around the room. Sylia was chatting with a man in a white coat; Linna and Nene talked in a low voice, with Nene scrunching up her face and Linna chuckling; Leon and Kou were standing on either sides of the room, neither moved or talked.
One would not notice any difference between this room, and any other rooms in other hospitals, but everyone in this room knew that Sylia had specially arranged for this one.
"Well, ordinarily there would be no need for secrecy here, but…" She gestured to the middle-aged doctor with somewhat balding head, large nose, think lips, and black rimmed, circular framed glasses. "Dr. Bryant here was a close friend of my father's…" She seemed to frown when she said 'father,' and then the left corner of her mouth barely moved up, but her face didn't look like smiling. Priss noticed but said nothing. Sylia continued: "So we can trust him."
"Does he know who we…?" Nene said quickly.
Sylia shook her head very slightly. She turned, and talked with Dr. Bryant for a moment, before the Doctor turned, and nodded to the group. He assured that Priss would recover soon, before leaving the room.
Locking the door, Sylia turned to the group. "Dr Bryant made sure no one would disturb us for as long as we need." She cleared her throat, and turned to Leon. "Well, detective, can you explain your new formed partnership with Kou here?"
Leon didn't seem to happy, he shrugged and said: "We're not really being partners, we're…"
Nene giggled when he said 'partner.' Leon glared at her and said indignantly: "Hey! It's not like that!"
Kou simple stared at Nene with a slightly confused look.
Nene stuck her tongue out, and then apologized.
"Anyway," Leon continued with a resigned look. "I received report of a new type of boomer wrecking havoc downtown, and then finding out that my singing sweet heart was there…" He turned and winked at Priss, who turned and looked at the window. "Hmpf," She said.
"…So I tried to get there as soon as I could, but this time I had to deal some procedural crap, and then this guy showed up at the station, or rather, we picked him up for questioning earlier when we…" He paused, and smiled sarcastically. "It's more like I picked him up," He stared at Nene hard for a second. She seemed to stifle a giggle. "With Daley on another assignment, it wasn't easy to do the investigation on my own, fortunately, some of our men noticed this guy and some guys in black lurking around where Miss Vision disappeared, so I just approached him. The son of a…He almost decked me." Leon said with some distaste in his voice.
Kou smiled, said: "Well, I had to be careful and suspicious about this. It isn't like this guy had 'AD Police' written on his face or something…"
"He was on TV." Linna pointed out.
Kou seemed to blush mildly. "True, but with Miss Reika missing, I had a tougher time to think straight, besides, just because he's a cop doesn't mean we, that is, the Hou Bang should trust him. We know how the justice system sometimes doesn't work…" His face darkened briefly before he continued: "At any rate, I tried to knock him out, but he was pretty good. Even fended off some of my guys, but we got him at the end…"
Leon interjected loudly: "I decided to hear what they had to say." He smiled exaggeratedly. Priss smirked. "Hmm….?" She cocked an eyebrow.
Kou took a deep breath. "That's when both sides figured out that we could help each other, since the AD Police can't do anything officially." His brows furrowed further before he let out a sigh. "I don't necessarily want to work with cops, but in this case," He turned his head and looked at Leon. "In this case, I think I can trust him."
"I've always figured that somehow Genom have more of a hand in our operations then I could ever find out, but owning us…" Leon spat. "Now that simply pisses me off."
"It isn't like they don't own everything around here." Linna said grimly.
"Not us." Priss said firmly. "These bastards don't own us."
"Sitting around and being negative won't do us any good," Sylia spoke, and everyone turned to look at her. "In this particular case, I think there is a stake for all of us." She nodded to Kou. "We, that is the Knight Sabers are formally accepting your request. But we will do it our way, so please don't interfere." Her voice turned a little bit regal and perhaps arrogant. Priss decided. It's just like her. Sylia continued: "But we do welcome whatever information you could furnish us with. You said you know where Miss Vision is being held?"
"Excuse me, what do you mean, 'don't interfere'?" Leon said with surprised expression.
"We're not staying out of this. This is our war with Genom." Kou said darkly.
"Yes, but we work alone." Sylia stated firmly. "That's the best way for us to operate efficiently."
The air in the room thickened considerably, as everybody became quiet.
"Guys, why are we arguing?" Nene said with a trouble expression on her face. "We have one enemy."
"We're not taking on Genom." Sylia said. She stood akimbo.
"But we are." Kou said, he turned to the door and started to leave. "Both of you are welcome to back out. We the Hou Bang will take care of them ourselves."
"Well, whatever. I'm just going to have to rescue Miss Vision, be a hero, and close the investigation myself." Leon shrugged, and turned to the exit.
"Leon…" Priss said sounding half whined, half resigned.
Linna rushed to the door, and block the men's way. "Wait a minute, we don't have to act like this." She said urgently. "We can work together, at least for the time being. For…for Reika's sake." Her voice lowered. "I don't want to lose a friend again."
Everyone was silent. Priss thought about her parents and old friends before she joined the Knight Sabers.
"Very well, let's do this then." Sylia spoke up first. "We'll rescue Miss Vision, after that, you may do whatever you want with Genom." Sylia nodded to Kou. "And you can close your case, and deal with your superiors." She looked at Leon's direction.
Priss gave Sylia an unpleasant look. She could tell Sylia was purposely ignoring her.
"I agree," Kou said. "Here are the probable places where Miss Reika's being held…"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"I said I'm fine already! This isn't the 20th century, you know!" Priss grumbled loudly as Linna tried to support her a little. "I'm pretty much all healed and ready to go!"
"Well, lucky for you the glass didn't exactly penetrate all the way through your thigh." Linna said, while pulling back her arms. "Fine. Thank God for technology."
"Let's go to Sylia's." Priss walked with a slight limp.
Linna couldn't help but marvel at how quickly this fast-tempered woman walking ahead of her healed. Well, she's a natural survivor. "More like a wild beast then Bat man." She muttered.
"What?" Priss turned and asked. She seemed to frown.
"Nothing, let's go."
The two arrived at Sylia's place. After being let in by Mackie, they stopped short of opening the door to Sylia's room when they heard an argument between she and Nene.
"But why can't we take on Genom?" Nene's voice came.
"They're too big for us to handle. Besides, they aren't necessarily all evil." Came Sylia's voice.
"What? But look what they did to all these people, Irene, Reika, Sylvie and Anri, Priss' friends from her old days, and our guys from the force!"
"Not Sylvie and Anri. Anyway, Genom make useful products for the world, creates jobs, and they did rebuild the whole city…"
"That's why half of the city looks like a garbage dump!"
Linna couldn't help but smile a little bit while imagining Nene's pout look, but her smile quickly turned to a grim one. Priss pushed open the door, and went in. She followed.
"Nene's right. It's about time somebody did something about it." Priss said loudly.
"It's not that simple, Priss." Sylia waved a hand.
"What, are you afraid of them?" Priss asked loudly.
Sylia's lips pursed but she said nothing.
"Something else bothers me here…" Linna's eyes narrowed slightly as she tried to recall something in her mind, something that Sylia talked about, something about the job offer from Genom... "…Yes, that's it!" She turned to Sylia. "Sylia, tell us about the Origin."
Sylia stared at her but didn't speak.
"Well?" Priss asked impatiently.
"Yeah, tell us!" Nene chimed in.
Sylia closed her eyes for a moment. "I suppose it was inevitable." She muttered. Sylia seemed to brace herself. "Are you aware how the boomers were created, exactly?"
The women excluding Sylia stared at each other for a second, before Nene spoke up: "Well, your father…I mean Dr. Stingray came up with the idea of a revolutionary cyber droid technology, which is based on some human physiology, but with great enhancements, so that people won't have to participate in hard manual labor, or even regular manual labor. In effect, saving time and reduce, even eliminate the need for costly safety measures…"
Sylia nodded and interrupted: "You didn't forget most of what the Genom corporation told people in public. But here's the question: who or what was the prototype boomer?"
Nene blinked. "Who? What do you mean, who?"
Priss shook her head, and shrugged. "I don't follow you."
Sylia took a deep breath, and seemed to tense up for a moment. "The boomers are made based on humans, but it wasn't easy to transition from human structures to machine structures, so there had to be a prototype, a liaison between humans and boomers if you will." She paused, and continued: "This prototype in some ways was more advanced than today's boomers, because even though today's boomers are intelligent enough, and can carry out normal human functions just like humans most of the time, there are some elements missing, for instance, ambitions, arrogance, sadness, longing…"
"You sound like you're describing Sylvie and Anri." Priss said with a painful look on her face.
"And Largo." Linna added.
"They're certainly more advanced than the boomers then the ones we usually encounter. Their battle functions has been modified and enhanced even more than the usual boomers." Sylia walked over to the table, and picked up her coffee. "Now, suppose the more advanced boomers like Sylvie's and Largo's is an extension, even realization of the prototypes potentials, and the prototype is still somewhere at large, except it wasn't as enhanced as the Super Boomers or Sexroids, but still capable to function as they do, what would happen if someone like Largo, or Genom gets to it?" She took a sip and frowned. The coffee was rather bitter.
Priss winced when she heard the word boomer mentioned with Sylvie's name. She said quickly: "I thought we took out that cursed Largo and the black box before."
"Largo is dead, as far as we know. But the Satellite coordination system can be rebuild."
"I see," Linna said. "But so what? If we get to it and destroy it like we did to Largo, then the problem is solved, right?"
Sylia simply looked at her. Linna seemed to shrink back a little.
Priss frowned. "I don't like to think about this much, but…if the prototype is more like Sylvie…" She held her head and fell into the sofa, looking deflated.
"So we have a problem." Sylia stood akimbo with her gaze to the ground. "We can't simply exterminate the prototype, should it turn out to be more human then boomer, and since it doesn't function like Largo, we probably shouldn't even bother with it. On the other hand, if Genom gets to it…"
The room was deathly silent.
"Um, I have a question?" Nene spoke up suddenly. "What does all this have to do with our current situation?"
Sylia spoke slowly: "We don't want to confront Genom." She paused. "And I think I know what…or rather who the prototype is."
Priss looked up sharply at her.
Nene was agape.
Linna asked hurriedly: "Who?"
Sylia simply looked at the ground. Her arms are still crossed in front of her chest.
The air in the room was so thick that Sylia's laser blade couldn't cut it.
Linna seemed to tense up considerably. "Sylia, who did Dr. Stingray, or rather, your father use as the blueprint for the prototype?"
Sylia was silent.
Linna asked urgently in a higher pitched voice: "Who did he use as a prototype?" Her arms spread out to the sides.
The three stared at Sylia.
Nene's lower jaw slowly dropped lower than before.
Priss grabbed Sylia's arms. "You…you…"
"Please let go, Priss." Sylia said in a low voice.
"But…but…" Linna's words came stuttered.
"I've always suspected something. I mean, there are some things about me that I found different from others, but I've always just put them out of my mind." Sylia said in a low voice. "I'm not too sure, but with all these things happened lately, and our confrontation with Largo, I've began to suspect that perhaps I'm the Origin…"
Priss let go of Sylia's arms and fell back into the sofa. "I don't understand this." She jumped out of her seat. "Why the hell didn't you tell us?"
"Because I wasn't sure!" Sylia snapped. She threw her hands up. "Largo made a mind contact with me right after we dealt with the D.D., that made me more suspicious than before, but I still don't have any proof. Now Genom's coming after us, and our true identities are exposed, I'm not too sure about going against them…"
"This isn't like you at all, Sylia!" Linna exclaimed.
Sylia looked gloomy. "I've never wanted to go against them in the first place. It isn't just 'they're bad', and 'we're good'." She paused, and looked up at the ceiling. "But now I'm even more hesitant about going up against them. After all, it isn't just for my sake."
"I can't deal with this." Priss said and then turned, and hurried out of the door before anyone could stop her. A minute or two later the three women in the room could hear a loud roar of a motorcycle engine, and the screech of tire scrapping against the ground. The sound of Priss' bike faded into the distance quickly.
Silence.
Linna spoke up first. "I'm sorry Sylia, but right now I need to go home and think." She walked to the door; her hand was on the doorknob. "No matter what, Genom's probably coming after everyone of us. And maybe people there already knows who you truly are." She left without closing the door.
Nene came up and held Sylia's right arm for a moment. She was unusually quiet. "Um…I'll see you later, ok?" With that she quickly left the room.
Sylia stood along in the middle of the room. She lifted her right hand to the ceiling light and examined it for a long time, before she went into the databanks room and the automatic door slid shut behind her.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Tell me about your dealings with Largo." Linna asked somewhat sharply then she intended.
"We had some contact with a certain man behind a mask." Kou said succinctly.
"Mask?" Linna frowned.
"Yeah. It didn't work out." Kou paused while sipping on some tea. "He wanted us to supply some of our power cells that was used for the Genki all terrain combat vehicle, and the compositions for its armor, in exchange he would give us the Quincy's daily schedule for a certain month. We thought it was a rather ludicrous offer." He shrugged. "we weren't sure if the supposedly dead super boomer was behind that man, and our background check on him was fruitless, so we rejected his offer." He seemed frown. "I think this guy was more like an arms merchant."
"I see." Linna shook her head. "Didn't you guys know that Largo was very dangerous?"
"We had to try anyway we can to get to Quincy."
Linna leaned back in her chair. What is Sylia doing now? She shook her head, then said: "With Largo, if it really was him, there is a possibility for him to hack into Genom's mainframe, I mean super computer, and pull out certain schedules of the VIPs, but probably not Quincy's. I'm thinking his secretary Madigan probably memorizes them in her mind."
Kou seemed thoughtful. "In that case, if we can somehow abduct this woman, and then put her under our deep psycho-scanner…"
"Kou," Linna said with a warning tone. "That's wrong and you know it. Anyway, we won't do that."
"Easy for you to say," Kou smiled coldly. "Miss Reika probably went through their scanner. It's not a pleasant experience." His face twisted as if he was in pain, but he quickly recovered.
"I'm sorry, Kou." Linna said in a soften voice. "We're all trying hard and we'll rescue her, I promise."
"When?" Kou stared at her coldly. "It's been 3 days and you haven't moved yet."
Linna tried to hide her grimace. It was supposed to be tonight, but after last night… "Tomorrow night."
"If we had more fire power, we wouldn't need you at all." Kou said suddenly with a hint of frustration in his voice. He stood up. "I've already paid for the meal. Enjoy yourself." He turned and walked a few steps. "I'll be waiting at the warehouse near the water front, in district 7."
Now how am I going to get everyone together? "I understand." Linna tried very hard to hide her grimace.
Kou nodded and left. Linna held her forehead.
The steak dinner was turning cold.
Linna stared at the meal, then she gazed outside.
The nighttime at Mega Tokyo was an almost dreamy sight whenever she looks through the glass of a restaurant, or hotel room. From where she sat, only the ever-changing red, green, yellow, blue, and different colors of the neon lights were visible in the otherwise darkly veiled city. The floating billboard flied by while barking out for the nth time about new opportunities in the newly built frontier space colonies. She leaned back in her seat, and closed her eyes for a moment. Then there were the smelly street corners, the dirty alleyways, the abandoned buildings once held promise for a brighter future and jobs to provide for the families with distant dreams now housed the homeless. Not that anyone cares. She thought, then her lips curled. Not the police, not the media, and not Genom.
"Perhaps we're over doing it. There isn't any more…" Linna lowered her head, and looked at her steak again.
It had already turned cold, and all the juice had already come out of it. She mechanically lifted up her knife with her right hand, stabbed the meat with the fork in her left hand, and began to cut through it.
The neon lights still glowed and flashed outside, as a couple walked by holding hands and laughed out a loud.
Irene's face and her engagement ring flashed by in Linna Yamazaki's mind, as she looked up all of a sudden. She took a deep breath. "That wasn't like me, was it?" She mused out a loud. Seeing that no one had noticed her words, she quickly finished her meal, paid for it, and went outside. The night was not as cold as she thought before. She quickly got into her car, started it and found it being responsive. She smiled with delight, and quickly drove away.