Bubble Gum HYTE (Fan-fic)
Source: Bubble Gum Crisis/Crash
Author: LV426
Chapter 13: Regroup
Linna left through the front door. Her expression said about all that could be said about what just happened. On the one hand, she was happy to be alive, knowing full well if Astis had wanted it otherwise, she would never have left that apartment. On the other, she couldn't figure out what drove him to cut her off like that. "Why did he cut me off like that?" she wondered. "Doesn't sound very co-operative to me." She sighed, knowing she may never get a chance to find out. But still, she had a lot of information to share with her friends now.
She wandered into the parking lot. Originally, she was supposed to take the bus back home and they would meet later, but when she left the apartment, radio in hand once more, Sylia immediately told her to meet them here. Apparently something urgent had come up. "Wonder what would be so urgent as to risk blowing our cover like this?"
"What is that fool doing?" Priss asked, more then aggravated. If she had had her way, she and Sylia would have geared up and taken control of the whole situation. But Sylia didn't seem interested in doing that. Still, as angry as she was at Sylia, she understood the purpose Sylia had in waiting. Had they busted in, she knew the kind of weapons Astis had. If they made the wrong move and he considered the three of them hostile, it could have been all over. "Poor Nene would have had to handle everything," she thought, bringing a small smile to her face. She could imagine the little hacker trying desperately to keep up, then just collapsing in the center as if to say "Why me?"
Sylia, on the other hand, smiled like a mother might at a confused child and flipped the lights on and off a few times. That was all the hint Linna needed, and she found her way to the van, an expression on her face that consisted of fear, shock, and happiness all at once. Sylia opened the door and she entered the van. In another moment, they were on their way out of there.
"What happened" Priss asked, for the moment her anger subsided enough to ask. But the anger surfaced again as she continued. "What the hell happened in there?"
"He… he wanted to talk alone…" Linna replied, her voice showing her uncertainties in all of this.
"You mean he didn't want you to know what questions to ask." Linna thought about that. Yes, it was possible, but she somehow had to question if that was the case. Priss caught on to her expression. "Well what else could it be? He IS a boomer after all. Its not like he would consider privacy for the sake of privacy!" she added, exasperated that any other conclusion could be drawn.
Sylia listened in as she drove home. She couldn't help but consider what was being said. "Well, if he was told to make sure she was alone, he certainly would have done that… but it took to long for him to notice. He would have been watching for that too," her thoughts went on to say. "But then, maybe Kou just wanted us to come up so he would have another chance to get our Identities. Can't quite trust him to play by any peticular rules." With a casual glance to the back mirror, she saw the expression on Linna's face as Priss tried to beat it into her that there was no way that boomer just 'wanted' privacy to talk. The expression was far from convinced of this. "But Linna seems so sure the boomer acted on his own. She was the only one who was there… could she be right? But how? A boomer may have intelligence, but it is limited, and normally could not think of such subtle details on it's own…" Her mind went over a boomer that they had dealt with before… one that would have been human enough to do that… "but Adama is dead, and Priss herself has the AI program locked up somewhere. Besides he was the only one of his kind… wasn't he?"
* * *
Astis watched the Silky Doll van drive away. He had been watching from security cameras as Linna stepped inside it, and now he watched it roll by from the shadows just inside the main door to his apartment complex. "I wish I didn't have to do this," he sighed to himself. "But Kou gave me the order to find out all I can about them… and maybe Armstrong will be able to help me out if I can too." He shook his head, trying to muster his determination, and with a speed much faster then a human should ever be able to run, he took off after the van, making a point to keep far enough away that a human wouldn't suspect they were being followed.
* * *
Nene paced outside the Silky Doll like she was afraid hell itself would take someone she cared away, and there was literally nothing she could do about it. She really had no other way to look at it either. She knew what Linna was off doing, and knew just how dangerous it was, no matter how sure Sylia had seemed the night before. She also knew that they were running late, which in any other situation would be annoying. Right now, it was downright scary. "Why did I not even speak out against this idea?" she whined under her breath and wishing now she had made a scene. "To meet with only one like that was a bad idea. Scare everyone or not, we should have just busted in fully geared and…" Her argument with no one in peticular was interrupted by a loud horn which nearly gave her a heart attack. As soon as she looked up to see Linna's slightly evilly smiling face next to Sylia's in the front of the van driving by to the back, she forgot her whole argument. Her only annoyance now was that it was more then likely Linna that had hit the horn, and done it solely to scare her. Still, that was minor as long as her friend was back and not a blood smear on the wall. She ran to the back to greet them as soon as she could.
* * *
Sylia opened the door of the van and stepped out. Her calm expression broke into a soft smile as she saw Nene running for them. It was Linna though that greeted her. "Shocked to see me, huh?" she teased, making Nene turn bright red.
"I KNEW you did that on purpose!" Nene fumed, but it was only momentary. "I was afraid we were going to be one Saber short!"
"For a moment, Astis had me convinced you were," came the solemn answer. The other three could tell she would not forget that moment when Astis jammed the signal any time soon.
"Let's save the shop talk for upstairs please," Sylia commented. "This isn't the kind of thing any passers-by on the street should be listening in on." With a nod from both, Linna and Nene both went silent. Sylia smiled gently. "Come on," she spoke with a comfort in her voice as she unlocked the door. "We can discuss this over tea."
* * *
Astis watched as the van pulled into the private parking lot. He shook his head, knowing this could get a lot more complex very fast. Still, this was something in and of itself. He now knew where Linna and her friends went. He couldn't be sure they were the Knight Sabers themselves, but he was certain they were her contacts to them. "Otherwise they wouldn't have a reason to listen in like that… or her consent to plant a bug on her like that," he reasoned. He approached the building and looked in the main door. Inside the laungerei store, he found no one at all. It was closed for the day. "Thought so," he added to himself, "Guess I will have to wait." He may be a boomer, but Astis knew his skill was not meant to be breaking into electronic securities. If this was where the Knight Sabers themselves were, to try would be to be caught without a prayer… and maybe to get killed in the process by hardware burning systems.
With a sigh, Astis strolled around the building, looking for another way in, but found none that he could open. "Guess I have to stake the place out.," he said under his breath. The he began searching for a place he could keep hidden and watch for any changes in the building, something he was far better at.
* * *
Sylia was the last to sit down at the table. The others were all silent at that moment, though Sylia had heard a low spoken but unmistakable "shut up" from Priss before she followed them into the living room. Who she was talking to or why she couldn't say.
"Sylia, what's going on?" Nene asked, not more then five seconds after Sylia had sat down. Her voice was filled with questioning dread, as she knew she needed to know, but was afraid of the answer.
Sylia closed her eyes and took a breath, clearing her mind to the matters at hand. After a second, she responded. "I'm not sure what's going on yet, Nene," she said as evenly as anyone could. "Linna's meeting with Astis took an unexpected turn."
"Yeah, and could have gotten her killed," Priss added under her breath.
Sylia glanced at Priss, a little stung that even now, her friend and fellow Saber didn't trust her judgement, but there was nothing more to say for it. She looked back to Nene, greeting her wide shocked eyes with a gentle smile. "He was obviously a more advanced boomer then anyone could foresee, but Linna was safe so long as we acted reasonably. He was under orders to help us out, after all."
Nene nodded slowly. Unlike Priss, she never really doubted Sylia's judgement in these things. Still, the idea of her friend forced to handle a boomer alone like that didn't sit well with her. She glanced to Linna with a sympathetic look and was met with an understanding one, if not a little shaken.
Sylia spoke up once more. "By the way, Nene. This meeting was originally going to happen tomorrow… you said you found something?"
Nene's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah! Two things, actually. For one, our main suspect is dead."
Priss groaned. "You called us aside for that? The news broadcast that this morning. We ALL could have known this!"
"Dr. Yoshida is dead?" Linna echoed.
"YES! He's DEAD!" Priss belted out. "We now have NO leads what-so-ever!"
"Well, I wouldn't say that," Nene added teasingly. "But we may have to go on site to find more."
"What do you mean?" Priss stopped fuming a moment to ask.
Sylia said nothing, but her eyes hinted at the curiosity to what Nene was going to say. "There may be a system or two that are not hooked up to the outside world in there. There may be something at the Wiz-Labs worth looking into," she explained.
"Why the Wiz-Labs?" Linna inquired.
Nene blinked at Linna as Priss' jaw dropped. "You don't know? That's where they found him." Nene answered after a few moments of awkward silence.
Linna blinked. "Could there be a lead to who killed him there?"
"I doubt it," Priss countered.
"But there is merit to going anyway." Everyone stopped talking and turned as their leader spoke. "Dr. Yoshida was not an idiot, no matter how crazy he may have been. He must have understood what he was making."
"So your sure it was him?" Priss asked.
"You're the one who threw the phone at the TV when you saw the news report," Sylia returned, making Priss go several shades of red. "But I would say that since he died so soon afterwards, he could also have been a target."
After a moment of contemplation from everyone, it was Nene who spoke up. "But wait a sec. Didn't his release time suggest that he could have built the boomer with a lab and the right parts? And also, the way the release came up, someone with enough power to supply both could well have done it?"
Priss huffed a light but sadistic laugh, "So your saying he pissed off whoever let him out, right?"
"It's possible," Linna added.
"Or he could have simply outlived his usefulness," Sylia added. Her tone was darker then normal, as if she was playing the role of whoever let out Dr. Yoshida in the first place. She shook her head, clearing it of that mess for now, and looked out at her team with dead seriousness. "In any case, Nene is right. We need to look into the Wiz-Labs. More then likely, since it was a research lab before anything else, there are computers cut off from the outside world to use with delicate information. We should look through them for anything interesting."
"Assuming any still stand," Priss added, still in foul mood.
"I somehow don't doubt it," Sylia thought. The thought of going back to those labs was not a pleasant one for her, and she wasn't sure she wanted to see what was in those computers. But, there really were no other leads at the moment, so her hand was forced. Forcing these thoughts away a moment, she looked up to Linna. "Now that our next actions are settled, would you mind telling us what you found out, Linna?"
Linna nodded and took a deep breath. "Alright… While we were cut off, he explained his background to me, and where he got the weapons built into his arm. He didn't have much else to say… he only saw the boomer we are hunting that one time."
"Still, anything he told us may be useful… please continue," Sylia added calmly.
Again with a nod, Linna did so… her voice remained slightly uncertain, but she had as much faith in her leader as anyone, so she would not disappoint her and hold back now. "Well, Astis is a military boomer. He escaped them a little ways back, and he doesn't doubt that they would do anything to get him back."
"Because of his arm, right?" Priss asked, her head now resting on her elbow as she looked away like she could predict everything Linna was going to say.
Linna shook her head slightly. "Not entirely… his AI is steps ahead of any other boomer out there."
"What do you mean?" Nene asked.
Linna paused a moment, unsure how to continue. "He is almost on a human level."
Sylia looked at Linna shocked. Could Astis' AI be Adama? She shook her head at the thought. That AI chip had been left in Priss' hands, and there was no way in hell anyone was getting a hold of it. Still, there had to be a reason for that.
Priss replied to the most obvious one. "That's bullshit and you know it, Linna. There have only been two boomers with intelligence that high, and both of them are dead."
"Well that's what he told me, and he was smart enough to figure out that I was in radio contact," Linna protested.
"And that takes more then a good eye with a boomers senses how?" returned Priss, visibly annoyed to be arguing what she knew was pure crap.
Sylia didn't let the argument get any farther. "While an interesting debate, our time would be better used getting the rest of the story. Would you continue, Linna?"
Linna nodded, glad for the break in the fight. When push came to shove, she could hold her own arguing with Priss, but generally she didn't want to. "Well, Astis told me that he came to understand he was made to destroy. He decided for himself it was wrong to live just for that, but since they had him, he couldn't really do much about it. That was when he was found what he thinks of as a friend," this last part left her face confused, as if she wasn't exactly sure how to say what she needed to.
"What do you mean by a friend?" Priss asked rather pointedly. Just like Linna had learned to stand for herself against Priss in an argument, Priss had learned these expressions could often be a hint of something.
"Well, this friend… it wasn't someone physical at all… it was something that reached out to him through his modem,"
Dead silence followed for a good thirty seconds. Priss looked at Linna like she was spinning the world's least believable story. Sylia, on the other hand, for a split second let her eyes reveal shock and alarm at this, but quickly covered herself and became the calm and cool leader that they all knew so well. Nene's jaw just dropped. "No way…" she muttered to herself.
"Was he sure that this thing wasn't just someone who knew about him out there on a computer?" Sylia asked.
Linna nodded, though her uncertainty showed in her expression. "He seemed pretty sure. He said it's name was Armstrong and that it decided boomers shouldn't have humans as masters, especially one as mentally equipped as him. It was Armstrong that got him in touch with the Hou Bang…"
"…and why he is working with us on Kou's behalf now…" Sylia finished the comment. Her mind was clicking immediately, like she was just handed a major part of the puzzle. "We need to find out who this Armstrong is. It may prove to be nothing at all, but it may also turn out to be vital."
Nene sighed. "Can't it wait till later? The chief gets suspicious if you spend too much time on the main computers like that."
Sylia considered this. "Maybe, but we wont know for certain till we look into the labs. If that fails us, what we find on Armstrong could well be the only lead we have."
"Oh, alright."
"In any case, its time to suit up. The sooner we go, the sooner we will find out," Sylia continued. "And I have a bad feeling time is against us," she added to herself.
* * *
Astis watched from across the street as the garage opened up from the back of the Silky Doll. He would have done nothing more then try to conceal himself that much better had he not watched the same van that had picked Linna up now pulling out. "So they are on the move," he thought. "Guess I better follow."
For a split second, he considered changing his plans, and rather then follow and observe, use this chance to get into their base of opporations with no one else there. He quickly negated that idea, however. His business was to report what he observed, but to work with them, not spy on them. "I can do that later if and when I have to," he added to this argument. For the duration of the trip, he was determined to follow them, and even had his distance from the van picked out.
* * *
"Dreams of Mine" played in the background of the cab of the truck as it pulled into a cargo dock on the Genom Warehouse. The man behind the wheel didn't peticularly fond of the song, or many other songs from America for that matter. Still, he had enjoyed the song playing just before, and now he was where he had to be. He was going to turn the truck off in a moment, so he wasn't about to worry about what was on right now.
With a quick click of the keys, the truck was off. In a few more motions practiced so many times, the driver was out of the truck. He smiled quietly to himself. "Well, time to announce myself," he spoke out loud, but more to himself. "Damn this is going to be a sweet job. And they say Genom isn't generous," he continued in a patronizing tone. His step seemed light as he made his way to the back door. He hit the bell and waited a moment, but his whistling never stopped. After a short time, a security guard arrived and ushered him inside. Soon he would be on the road again, with a custom delivery in his truck and a very substantial check in the mail.
* * *
The van came to a stop with Sylia's controlled breaking; a smooth contact. Once the emergency breaks were in place, she climbed into the back with the others. They were already suited and ready, with the exception of Nene who opted to wait to put her helmet on. Sylia glanced around, glad she didn't have to be here alone. She had many memories of the labs they were about to enter, and none of them very good. She began to strip down and replace her day clothes with the hard suite that would serve as better senses for investigation as well as protection should they have been expected.
While she did this, Linna sat to the side, waiting. Her helmet didn't let it show, but she was tense. This had been a murder scene, and she was still a little shaken at what happened when she had interviewed Astis. She jumped at the hand on her shoulder, but looking revealed it was only Nene, who was now sitting next to her with a concerned look on her face. "You ok, Linna? You haven't been yourself tonight."
"Oh… I'm fine… just…" she sighed, not able to explain this, not even really to herself. She was safe now, so why was she so shaken still?
Nene smiled reassuringly. "We're all here, Linna. It will be ok."
Linna only smiled back with a slight nod, for the moment just glad to be among friends and in her armor once more.
"We all ready?" It was Sylia who spoke next. She was now finishing clicking herself into her suit. Her helmet was within arm's reach.
"About time," Priss snapped, facing Sylia from her own armor. She had been pacing at the door, eager to get moving. "Could have died of old age waiting for you!"
Sylia couldn't help but smirk as she put her helmet on. Nene also took her que and placed her own on as well. "Enough, Priss. Its time to move out." She opened the side panel of the van. Before them were now the ruins of the once proud Wiz-Labs. Stealing herself from her own doubts, Sylia stepped out and lead the expedition.
Source: Bubble Gum Crisis/Crash
Author: LV426
Chapter 13: Regroup
Linna left through the front door. Her expression said about all that could be said about what just happened. On the one hand, she was happy to be alive, knowing full well if Astis had wanted it otherwise, she would never have left that apartment. On the other, she couldn't figure out what drove him to cut her off like that. "Why did he cut me off like that?" she wondered. "Doesn't sound very co-operative to me." She sighed, knowing she may never get a chance to find out. But still, she had a lot of information to share with her friends now.
She wandered into the parking lot. Originally, she was supposed to take the bus back home and they would meet later, but when she left the apartment, radio in hand once more, Sylia immediately told her to meet them here. Apparently something urgent had come up. "Wonder what would be so urgent as to risk blowing our cover like this?"
"What is that fool doing?" Priss asked, more then aggravated. If she had had her way, she and Sylia would have geared up and taken control of the whole situation. But Sylia didn't seem interested in doing that. Still, as angry as she was at Sylia, she understood the purpose Sylia had in waiting. Had they busted in, she knew the kind of weapons Astis had. If they made the wrong move and he considered the three of them hostile, it could have been all over. "Poor Nene would have had to handle everything," she thought, bringing a small smile to her face. She could imagine the little hacker trying desperately to keep up, then just collapsing in the center as if to say "Why me?"
Sylia, on the other hand, smiled like a mother might at a confused child and flipped the lights on and off a few times. That was all the hint Linna needed, and she found her way to the van, an expression on her face that consisted of fear, shock, and happiness all at once. Sylia opened the door and she entered the van. In another moment, they were on their way out of there.
"What happened" Priss asked, for the moment her anger subsided enough to ask. But the anger surfaced again as she continued. "What the hell happened in there?"
"He… he wanted to talk alone…" Linna replied, her voice showing her uncertainties in all of this.
"You mean he didn't want you to know what questions to ask." Linna thought about that. Yes, it was possible, but she somehow had to question if that was the case. Priss caught on to her expression. "Well what else could it be? He IS a boomer after all. Its not like he would consider privacy for the sake of privacy!" she added, exasperated that any other conclusion could be drawn.
Sylia listened in as she drove home. She couldn't help but consider what was being said. "Well, if he was told to make sure she was alone, he certainly would have done that… but it took to long for him to notice. He would have been watching for that too," her thoughts went on to say. "But then, maybe Kou just wanted us to come up so he would have another chance to get our Identities. Can't quite trust him to play by any peticular rules." With a casual glance to the back mirror, she saw the expression on Linna's face as Priss tried to beat it into her that there was no way that boomer just 'wanted' privacy to talk. The expression was far from convinced of this. "But Linna seems so sure the boomer acted on his own. She was the only one who was there… could she be right? But how? A boomer may have intelligence, but it is limited, and normally could not think of such subtle details on it's own…" Her mind went over a boomer that they had dealt with before… one that would have been human enough to do that… "but Adama is dead, and Priss herself has the AI program locked up somewhere. Besides he was the only one of his kind… wasn't he?"
* * *
Astis watched the Silky Doll van drive away. He had been watching from security cameras as Linna stepped inside it, and now he watched it roll by from the shadows just inside the main door to his apartment complex. "I wish I didn't have to do this," he sighed to himself. "But Kou gave me the order to find out all I can about them… and maybe Armstrong will be able to help me out if I can too." He shook his head, trying to muster his determination, and with a speed much faster then a human should ever be able to run, he took off after the van, making a point to keep far enough away that a human wouldn't suspect they were being followed.
* * *
Nene paced outside the Silky Doll like she was afraid hell itself would take someone she cared away, and there was literally nothing she could do about it. She really had no other way to look at it either. She knew what Linna was off doing, and knew just how dangerous it was, no matter how sure Sylia had seemed the night before. She also knew that they were running late, which in any other situation would be annoying. Right now, it was downright scary. "Why did I not even speak out against this idea?" she whined under her breath and wishing now she had made a scene. "To meet with only one like that was a bad idea. Scare everyone or not, we should have just busted in fully geared and…" Her argument with no one in peticular was interrupted by a loud horn which nearly gave her a heart attack. As soon as she looked up to see Linna's slightly evilly smiling face next to Sylia's in the front of the van driving by to the back, she forgot her whole argument. Her only annoyance now was that it was more then likely Linna that had hit the horn, and done it solely to scare her. Still, that was minor as long as her friend was back and not a blood smear on the wall. She ran to the back to greet them as soon as she could.
* * *
Sylia opened the door of the van and stepped out. Her calm expression broke into a soft smile as she saw Nene running for them. It was Linna though that greeted her. "Shocked to see me, huh?" she teased, making Nene turn bright red.
"I KNEW you did that on purpose!" Nene fumed, but it was only momentary. "I was afraid we were going to be one Saber short!"
"For a moment, Astis had me convinced you were," came the solemn answer. The other three could tell she would not forget that moment when Astis jammed the signal any time soon.
"Let's save the shop talk for upstairs please," Sylia commented. "This isn't the kind of thing any passers-by on the street should be listening in on." With a nod from both, Linna and Nene both went silent. Sylia smiled gently. "Come on," she spoke with a comfort in her voice as she unlocked the door. "We can discuss this over tea."
* * *
Astis watched as the van pulled into the private parking lot. He shook his head, knowing this could get a lot more complex very fast. Still, this was something in and of itself. He now knew where Linna and her friends went. He couldn't be sure they were the Knight Sabers themselves, but he was certain they were her contacts to them. "Otherwise they wouldn't have a reason to listen in like that… or her consent to plant a bug on her like that," he reasoned. He approached the building and looked in the main door. Inside the laungerei store, he found no one at all. It was closed for the day. "Thought so," he added to himself, "Guess I will have to wait." He may be a boomer, but Astis knew his skill was not meant to be breaking into electronic securities. If this was where the Knight Sabers themselves were, to try would be to be caught without a prayer… and maybe to get killed in the process by hardware burning systems.
With a sigh, Astis strolled around the building, looking for another way in, but found none that he could open. "Guess I have to stake the place out.," he said under his breath. The he began searching for a place he could keep hidden and watch for any changes in the building, something he was far better at.
* * *
Sylia was the last to sit down at the table. The others were all silent at that moment, though Sylia had heard a low spoken but unmistakable "shut up" from Priss before she followed them into the living room. Who she was talking to or why she couldn't say.
"Sylia, what's going on?" Nene asked, not more then five seconds after Sylia had sat down. Her voice was filled with questioning dread, as she knew she needed to know, but was afraid of the answer.
Sylia closed her eyes and took a breath, clearing her mind to the matters at hand. After a second, she responded. "I'm not sure what's going on yet, Nene," she said as evenly as anyone could. "Linna's meeting with Astis took an unexpected turn."
"Yeah, and could have gotten her killed," Priss added under her breath.
Sylia glanced at Priss, a little stung that even now, her friend and fellow Saber didn't trust her judgement, but there was nothing more to say for it. She looked back to Nene, greeting her wide shocked eyes with a gentle smile. "He was obviously a more advanced boomer then anyone could foresee, but Linna was safe so long as we acted reasonably. He was under orders to help us out, after all."
Nene nodded slowly. Unlike Priss, she never really doubted Sylia's judgement in these things. Still, the idea of her friend forced to handle a boomer alone like that didn't sit well with her. She glanced to Linna with a sympathetic look and was met with an understanding one, if not a little shaken.
Sylia spoke up once more. "By the way, Nene. This meeting was originally going to happen tomorrow… you said you found something?"
Nene's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah! Two things, actually. For one, our main suspect is dead."
Priss groaned. "You called us aside for that? The news broadcast that this morning. We ALL could have known this!"
"Dr. Yoshida is dead?" Linna echoed.
"YES! He's DEAD!" Priss belted out. "We now have NO leads what-so-ever!"
"Well, I wouldn't say that," Nene added teasingly. "But we may have to go on site to find more."
"What do you mean?" Priss stopped fuming a moment to ask.
Sylia said nothing, but her eyes hinted at the curiosity to what Nene was going to say. "There may be a system or two that are not hooked up to the outside world in there. There may be something at the Wiz-Labs worth looking into," she explained.
"Why the Wiz-Labs?" Linna inquired.
Nene blinked at Linna as Priss' jaw dropped. "You don't know? That's where they found him." Nene answered after a few moments of awkward silence.
Linna blinked. "Could there be a lead to who killed him there?"
"I doubt it," Priss countered.
"But there is merit to going anyway." Everyone stopped talking and turned as their leader spoke. "Dr. Yoshida was not an idiot, no matter how crazy he may have been. He must have understood what he was making."
"So your sure it was him?" Priss asked.
"You're the one who threw the phone at the TV when you saw the news report," Sylia returned, making Priss go several shades of red. "But I would say that since he died so soon afterwards, he could also have been a target."
After a moment of contemplation from everyone, it was Nene who spoke up. "But wait a sec. Didn't his release time suggest that he could have built the boomer with a lab and the right parts? And also, the way the release came up, someone with enough power to supply both could well have done it?"
Priss huffed a light but sadistic laugh, "So your saying he pissed off whoever let him out, right?"
"It's possible," Linna added.
"Or he could have simply outlived his usefulness," Sylia added. Her tone was darker then normal, as if she was playing the role of whoever let out Dr. Yoshida in the first place. She shook her head, clearing it of that mess for now, and looked out at her team with dead seriousness. "In any case, Nene is right. We need to look into the Wiz-Labs. More then likely, since it was a research lab before anything else, there are computers cut off from the outside world to use with delicate information. We should look through them for anything interesting."
"Assuming any still stand," Priss added, still in foul mood.
"I somehow don't doubt it," Sylia thought. The thought of going back to those labs was not a pleasant one for her, and she wasn't sure she wanted to see what was in those computers. But, there really were no other leads at the moment, so her hand was forced. Forcing these thoughts away a moment, she looked up to Linna. "Now that our next actions are settled, would you mind telling us what you found out, Linna?"
Linna nodded and took a deep breath. "Alright… While we were cut off, he explained his background to me, and where he got the weapons built into his arm. He didn't have much else to say… he only saw the boomer we are hunting that one time."
"Still, anything he told us may be useful… please continue," Sylia added calmly.
Again with a nod, Linna did so… her voice remained slightly uncertain, but she had as much faith in her leader as anyone, so she would not disappoint her and hold back now. "Well, Astis is a military boomer. He escaped them a little ways back, and he doesn't doubt that they would do anything to get him back."
"Because of his arm, right?" Priss asked, her head now resting on her elbow as she looked away like she could predict everything Linna was going to say.
Linna shook her head slightly. "Not entirely… his AI is steps ahead of any other boomer out there."
"What do you mean?" Nene asked.
Linna paused a moment, unsure how to continue. "He is almost on a human level."
Sylia looked at Linna shocked. Could Astis' AI be Adama? She shook her head at the thought. That AI chip had been left in Priss' hands, and there was no way in hell anyone was getting a hold of it. Still, there had to be a reason for that.
Priss replied to the most obvious one. "That's bullshit and you know it, Linna. There have only been two boomers with intelligence that high, and both of them are dead."
"Well that's what he told me, and he was smart enough to figure out that I was in radio contact," Linna protested.
"And that takes more then a good eye with a boomers senses how?" returned Priss, visibly annoyed to be arguing what she knew was pure crap.
Sylia didn't let the argument get any farther. "While an interesting debate, our time would be better used getting the rest of the story. Would you continue, Linna?"
Linna nodded, glad for the break in the fight. When push came to shove, she could hold her own arguing with Priss, but generally she didn't want to. "Well, Astis told me that he came to understand he was made to destroy. He decided for himself it was wrong to live just for that, but since they had him, he couldn't really do much about it. That was when he was found what he thinks of as a friend," this last part left her face confused, as if she wasn't exactly sure how to say what she needed to.
"What do you mean by a friend?" Priss asked rather pointedly. Just like Linna had learned to stand for herself against Priss in an argument, Priss had learned these expressions could often be a hint of something.
"Well, this friend… it wasn't someone physical at all… it was something that reached out to him through his modem,"
Dead silence followed for a good thirty seconds. Priss looked at Linna like she was spinning the world's least believable story. Sylia, on the other hand, for a split second let her eyes reveal shock and alarm at this, but quickly covered herself and became the calm and cool leader that they all knew so well. Nene's jaw just dropped. "No way…" she muttered to herself.
"Was he sure that this thing wasn't just someone who knew about him out there on a computer?" Sylia asked.
Linna nodded, though her uncertainty showed in her expression. "He seemed pretty sure. He said it's name was Armstrong and that it decided boomers shouldn't have humans as masters, especially one as mentally equipped as him. It was Armstrong that got him in touch with the Hou Bang…"
"…and why he is working with us on Kou's behalf now…" Sylia finished the comment. Her mind was clicking immediately, like she was just handed a major part of the puzzle. "We need to find out who this Armstrong is. It may prove to be nothing at all, but it may also turn out to be vital."
Nene sighed. "Can't it wait till later? The chief gets suspicious if you spend too much time on the main computers like that."
Sylia considered this. "Maybe, but we wont know for certain till we look into the labs. If that fails us, what we find on Armstrong could well be the only lead we have."
"Oh, alright."
"In any case, its time to suit up. The sooner we go, the sooner we will find out," Sylia continued. "And I have a bad feeling time is against us," she added to herself.
* * *
Astis watched from across the street as the garage opened up from the back of the Silky Doll. He would have done nothing more then try to conceal himself that much better had he not watched the same van that had picked Linna up now pulling out. "So they are on the move," he thought. "Guess I better follow."
For a split second, he considered changing his plans, and rather then follow and observe, use this chance to get into their base of opporations with no one else there. He quickly negated that idea, however. His business was to report what he observed, but to work with them, not spy on them. "I can do that later if and when I have to," he added to this argument. For the duration of the trip, he was determined to follow them, and even had his distance from the van picked out.
* * *
"Dreams of Mine" played in the background of the cab of the truck as it pulled into a cargo dock on the Genom Warehouse. The man behind the wheel didn't peticularly fond of the song, or many other songs from America for that matter. Still, he had enjoyed the song playing just before, and now he was where he had to be. He was going to turn the truck off in a moment, so he wasn't about to worry about what was on right now.
With a quick click of the keys, the truck was off. In a few more motions practiced so many times, the driver was out of the truck. He smiled quietly to himself. "Well, time to announce myself," he spoke out loud, but more to himself. "Damn this is going to be a sweet job. And they say Genom isn't generous," he continued in a patronizing tone. His step seemed light as he made his way to the back door. He hit the bell and waited a moment, but his whistling never stopped. After a short time, a security guard arrived and ushered him inside. Soon he would be on the road again, with a custom delivery in his truck and a very substantial check in the mail.
* * *
The van came to a stop with Sylia's controlled breaking; a smooth contact. Once the emergency breaks were in place, she climbed into the back with the others. They were already suited and ready, with the exception of Nene who opted to wait to put her helmet on. Sylia glanced around, glad she didn't have to be here alone. She had many memories of the labs they were about to enter, and none of them very good. She began to strip down and replace her day clothes with the hard suite that would serve as better senses for investigation as well as protection should they have been expected.
While she did this, Linna sat to the side, waiting. Her helmet didn't let it show, but she was tense. This had been a murder scene, and she was still a little shaken at what happened when she had interviewed Astis. She jumped at the hand on her shoulder, but looking revealed it was only Nene, who was now sitting next to her with a concerned look on her face. "You ok, Linna? You haven't been yourself tonight."
"Oh… I'm fine… just…" she sighed, not able to explain this, not even really to herself. She was safe now, so why was she so shaken still?
Nene smiled reassuringly. "We're all here, Linna. It will be ok."
Linna only smiled back with a slight nod, for the moment just glad to be among friends and in her armor once more.
"We all ready?" It was Sylia who spoke next. She was now finishing clicking herself into her suit. Her helmet was within arm's reach.
"About time," Priss snapped, facing Sylia from her own armor. She had been pacing at the door, eager to get moving. "Could have died of old age waiting for you!"
Sylia couldn't help but smirk as she put her helmet on. Nene also took her que and placed her own on as well. "Enough, Priss. Its time to move out." She opened the side panel of the van. Before them were now the ruins of the once proud Wiz-Labs. Stealing herself from her own doubts, Sylia stepped out and lead the expedition.