Bubble Gum HYTE (Fan-fic)
Source: Bubble Gum Crisis/Crash
Author: LV426
Chapter 17: Jake's Bad Day
As if having to will himself to enter, Jake boots marched into the ADP headquarters. Yesterday was one of the worst he could have had, but that still didn't excuse him from work today. "No amount of time will make my bet disappear, so might as well get this overwith," he thought rather glumly to himself. Keeping his focus ahead of him, he approached the elevators, hoping no one would call him. He slowly pressed the button to summon it.
"Oh, there you are, Mr. Boots," called a female voice to his immediate left. Jake cringed at his name being called, knowing who it was and that she wouldn't be calling to him for anything he would want to hear. Slowly, he turned toward the secretary, who was waving at him, a smile plastered on her face as there always was.
"Yes?" He didn't bother with her name. He couldn't remember it normally, and last night he had tried to get hammered and forget the day before. His odds of getting close were dramatically slim.
"The chief wanted me to look out for you. He said when you come in, you're to go straight to his office."
"Did he say why?"
"No, only to come."
"Well that's encouraging," Jake thought to himself sarcastically. "But what could it be... hold on a second! I was the one to tell him about the scene yesterday! Maybe they got the guy who did it!" Having brightened his own mood a little, he turned to the secretary once more. "Thank you. I'll handle it."
A little confused, the secretary only nodded, the smile still annoyingly plastered across her face. Jake, on the other hand, strode confidently to the elevators once more, almost unaware that the one he had called was now full and on its way up. He pushed the button one more time.
"Oh great," Nene thought as she watched the elevator open across the room and Jake Boots step into it. She knew if she got in that elevator right now, he would probably be trying to joke with and hit on her the whole trip, and she would have to restrain the urge to impale him with a fork. "Well, I suppose I can wait," was the next thought, but she resisted it. "No... I got in early for a reason, and I probably don't have much time to lose." Her resolve renewed, she broke into a run.
"Hey! Hold that elevator!" she yelled, knowing Jake would be only too happy to. True to form, he stopped questioningly, but his smile said enough and he put his hand in the way of the door so it wouldn't shut on her. She slowed to a walk and stepped in. "Thanks, Jake," she added before leaning against the back of the elevator car, managing to fake some gratitude.
"You know I don't mind..." Jake returned, an unusual amount of cheer in his face and voice.
"I bet you don't," Nene thought to herself, but she kept quiet.
"So, what brings you in this early anyway?"
"27."
"What?" Jake's face showed his confusion.
"Floor 27, please."
"Oh, alright..." Jake pushed the button before his smile returned. "But I have to say, a number is a very weird reason to be in so early."
"Well you're in a mood this morning. What's going on?"
"The chief called me up." Jake's smile broadened as if he was bragging.
Nene fell backwards into the wall behind her. "You're happy the chief called you?" Her voice betrayed just how badly she could not believe what she was hearing.
"Yep!" He nodded enthusiastically, leaving Nene to wonder if the man before her had finally snapped. "This should be very good!"
If Nene had mace, she would be digging for it now. "Umm... I thought when the chief calls someone, it's a bad thing.... Especially when he calls you."
"Yeah... normally..." his tone remained very high spirited, but it waited, and Nene knew he was waiting for her to ask him to continue. She hoped her silence would buy her the time before the elevator stopped and Jake to leave for whatever his cracked little mind was up to. Sadly, she would find no such luck. "...but that changes today! I think they caught the guy who killed Suvan, and if so, he probably wants to thank me for being so quick about the report?"
"Suvan?" Nene blinked.
"Oh, sorry... you may not have known her... officer Hikari."
"Umm... Jake, I don't remember hearing anything about anyone getting killed."
"You poor sheltered girl," he patronized, bringing a slight blush of anger to Nene's face. "Suvan was the girl of my dreams! But when I got the guts together to ask her, it was, too late." After a few seconds, his tone changed from patronizing and dramatic to eagerness. "But, now they know who did it, and when I find out..." He grinned again.
Nene didn't need to be told what he would do, but she also didn't really want to know. "I have run into Ms. Hikari once ore twice, once this morning!" Nene thought, "She isn't dead, and Jake has finally snapped in half!"
Thankfully, she didn't have to deal with Jake beyond that thought. The elevator slowed and the door opened. Jake stepped out whistling. "Well, see you later, Nene. If he gives me a metal, I will be sure to stop by and show it to you!" He waved.
"...uhh.. yeah.... See ya..." Nene managed to stammer out. Then he was gone and the door shut again. Nene slumped against the elevator, a sigh of complete relief.
The elevator door opened one more time and Nene stepped out, slightly shaken by the odd, even for him, behavior of Jake Boots just now. Still, her resolve remained, as well as her reason for being here now. "Still," she allowed herself to think, "I feel sorry for who ever he blames for this."
She closed her mind to such thoughts as she opened the door to the door across the hall from the elevator. "Good. No one here yet," she muttered under her breath as she hit the light switch. She probably didn't need it with the glow of the various monitors around to guide her way, but it was habit, and right now, she wasn't going to worry about that. Nor would she have worried if anyone was there. She just didn't want to be bothered with them right now.
As if she owned the place, Nene stepped past the first few workstations and sat down. The choice was almost random, but she just never liked being so close to the door when working in here; not when Leon could show up to try to scare her. She let her mind rest on that thought while the terminal logged in her ID and password, surprised that she actually missed those moments, now that they could never happen again. She hadn't cried when she heard that Leon was dead. In fact, she hadn't done much of anything. It was as if a sudden blow had frozen her in place, and until now, she had never restarted. But now, as she remembered the childish stunts, as well as the happy times around him, the full realization that he wasn't coming back settled in on her. Despite her best efforts, she fell onto the monitor and sobbed, finally mourning someone who was like a big bother, and is now gone.
The Mercedes pulled into Raven's Garage with the same precision it's driver put into almost everything she did. After pulling in, Sylia shut the engine down and opened the door. It wasn't hard to pick out Dr. Raven; he was talking to a young man who was leaning next to the other car in the garage. The man was only half paying attention to him, however, as he kept glancing at her. She smiled quietly, amused as Dr. Raven kept having to snap the young man's attention back to himself, but decided if she ever wanted to talk to Dr. Raven about the adjustments for the hardsuits, she would have to wait in the main office.
She had just removed her shades and picked up a random automobile magazine when she heard the door open, shut, and the familiar voice of the good doctor. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Sylia," he greeted quickly, "That damn fool wouldn't hear a word of what I was saying."
Sylia nodded, a pleasant smile on her own face. "It's alright. I know how it is. Besides, you couldn't exactly skip over him and not draw attention."
Again, a nod, this time from Dr. Raven. "Well anyway, let's talk inside... best we discuss this kind of business away from public." Without pausing, he spun the sign on the desk to say "Out to Lunch."
Sylia nodded, appreciating the privacy as she always did on Knight Saber business. Without another word, she followed him to the underground section of his garage.
It was several minutes later when Nene finally got control of herself again. The console she was resting on displayed the desktop she was familiar with, but she had to blink tears away to see it clearly. She knew she had a job to. With the skill that she was known for on a computer, she brought up various files, always looking for references on a boomer named Armstrong. What came back to her immediately were old news reports of a renegade boomer of the same name who thought himself the messiah of boomers who would free them from the control of humans.
"Interesting, but what does this have to do with anything? Why would Astis know this boomer?" Nene thought to herself. Using the voice recognition system the ADP used to protect their own files against the system, she found her way into a few of the encrypted files. What she saw here made her eyes widen, both in disbelief and with a tinge of fear.
Before her now as a file that described how, using a fusion boomer body to look human, the personality behind Armstrong had successfully used an anti-Genom terrorist organization to get to and seize control of the then new computer system at Genom 'Alex-01.' Once inside it, he made quick work of taking over as many systems as he could and turned as many boomers on humans as he could, all for the idea that through this move, he could free them from human occupation. Not even using satellite weaponry had stopped it. The only reason he was stopped was because a member of this terrorist organization he used bombed the computer.
Nene leaned back in her chair a moment, trying to let this sink in. "This is the guy Astis knows? The guy who told him we were his enemy?" Her eyes widened again as she considered this idea, as well as how this might reflect on Astis, but she shook her head. "No way. Astis is NOT like that. If he was, Linna would be dead. And she has his trust... so what's the connection? How could this be the same Armstrong? He has never seen us, and he should be dead." That comment, even as she said it, made her shiver. Largo has now done the same stunt to them, and even that similarity sat badly with her. She shook her head, not wanting to consider that just now. "Maybe Astis' own past holds the key."
She began to let her fingers dance across the keyboard and brought up all she could find on the name Astis or anything close to it. There was nothing on file within the ADP records. "Alright, then we will look a little further out." Applying search methods and programs most do not know of, Nene made her request through the internet. Her eyes widened as she saw the results. Before her was a list with only one entry.
It was a single server with the name encrypted. It's IP address changed regularly, even as she watched on the list. Still, the changes were simplistic enough that as long as the computer she was using was fast enough, it could predict the new IP and use it as it changed. "Besides Sylia's, I don't think any other system I know would be able to get this one," she marveled.
Of course when she clicked to look at it, the server was just as encrypted as the name it went under. It also displayed a message, telling her that the server was property of the Japanese Military and that access was strictly prohibited, but she knew she couldn't let that stop her. Shuffling through her pocket book, she produced a disk with the software she would need to give her time to look around before any tracing software found the ADP. "Especially if they are using such old software," she commented to herself with a slight grin.
The secretary's voice buzzed through the chief's comm-speaker on his desk. "Sir? A Mr. Jake Boots is here to see you. He says you called him up."
"Yes I did... please let him in." He cleared his throught after turning off his own speaker.
"Alright, Sir."
In the next moment, Jake Boots opened the door to his office, a big grin plastered on his face, whistling the "Around the World." He stopped when he saw the chief, apparently not noticing the silent anger brimming around him. "What's the word, chief?"
"It should be termination, Boots... and for God's sake, wipe that smirk off your miserable face!" His voice remained relatively level.
"Huh?"
"You hear me, Jake. I should have your badge right now."
"Why?" Jake was stunned and his voice betrayed it.
The chief smiled in his quiet way. He didn't understand how Jake could not know what this was all about, but after watching the man practically skip is way into the office, let alone after being called about breaking the terminal in the one of the forensics labs, he was quite happy to make him squirm a little. "I think you know why, Jake," he said, leaning back. "In fact, why don't you tell me why?"
Jake seemed in deep thought for a moment, and the chief could practically see the gears churning across everything he had done since becoming a member of the ADP. After a moment he spoke. "Because I have been the biggest pain in your ass you have ever known in your career?"
The chief glared. "Can you be more specific?"
"Not really... I didn't try to remember your list last time. Sorry." He bowed in his apology.
The chief was ready to smack him, but held back from even letting it be audible in his voice just yet. "Anything new to add to the list?"
"New, Sir?" Now Jake was much more serious.
"I think you know what I'm talking about."
Jake shook his head. "I can't say I do, Sir."
"Nothing about a terminal being broken in the Forensics Lab yesterday rings a bell?"
Jake blinked and slowly a reddish hue of anger spread across his face. Not caring that it's the chief he was talking to, he slammed his fist down on the desk. "Do you mean to tell me when a beautiful woman, let alone one who is a fellow cop, like Suvan Hikari was murdered, your more concerned with a stupid TERMINAL?!?!?!?"
"Really, Jake... what are you babbling about now?"
"Suvan Hikari... she was murdered, Sir! I was going to talk to her and I found her corpse, her head twisted around completely around."
"I see... then tell me, how is it that she greeted me on my way in this morning?"
Confusion settled over Jake yet again, and the chief enjoyed every second of it. "She greeted you?"
The chief nodded. "I assure you, she is alive and VERY well. But you, on the other hand, still have to answer for that terminal."
"But... I saw her corpse."
"Are you calling me a liar, Mr. Boots?" The chief's tone was a dangerous one... he would not tolerate any more of this kind of talk.
Jake was lucky enough to catch the connotations. "No, Sir... I'm just trying to figure out what I saw then..."
"Probably something in your daydreams." He sighed, not wanting to deal with Jake anymore, but glad to have gotten this chance to get all of his own anger out. "In anycase, expect the bill for that terminal's repairs to come out of your check."
"Yes, sir..." Now Jake sounded tired and down... exactly what the chief had wanted.
"You are dismissed."
Nene leaned back in her chair and stared absently at the ceiling. That server had a lot of answers for her, but nothing she could use to figure out if this Armstrong she had read about was indeed the same one Astis knew. All the answers there did were make new questions in her mind. "Astis, who are you really?" was the main one, and it kept bouncing back and forth in her head. It was comforting, though, since the same answers that made her ask this also let her feel safer about him hanging around Linna. She knew he wouldn't lift a finger to hurt any of them.
Her eyes just began to close as she let herself at least take some comfort in that before she heard the door open and close, almost slam, shut. She glanced in the direction and saw a very upset looking Jake make his way into the room. "Looks like he finally had his illusion shattered," she thought idly as her mind went back over the elevator ride of the morning. "I hope he doesn't go postal... oh great, he is coming this way." With a groan, she sat up, not wanting to even offer a target to the man approaching. She didn't want anyone trying to sneak up on her right now, much less him.
Jake walked up to Nene's desk, his good mood gone for the day. He could tell she didn't really want to hear it, so he didn't say anything. He just grabbed a spare chair and sat down next to her desk. His mind wandered over his resent encounter with the chief. "But, but I saw her," he finally stammered out loud, just unable to comprehend how a corpse like that could be anything but a corpse.
"Saw who?" Nene asked, really not in the mood to talk to him, but liking a silent and sullen Jake Boots a lot less.
Jake looked up at Nene, contemplating talking to her a moment before replying. "Suvan... I saw her dead on the floor. How could she be alive?" Nene remained silent, whether it was because she couldn't or didn't want to answer him, Jake couldn't be sure. He shook his head, "Maybe I'm just going insane."
"You convinced me of that in the elevator," Nene replied under her breath.
"Hmmm?"
Nene blushed, surprised he had heard her. After getting up the nerves, she repeated herself, knowing Jake would not leave her alone until she did and wanting to cut to the end of that circuit. "You convinced me you were crazy in the elevator this morning."
Jake stared at her a moment, his expression not angry, but scary all the same, especially when you consider who was behind it. Finally he cracked a small grin. "Yeah, I was over the top, wasn't I?" Nene only nodded before he continued. "I shouldn't have come in today."
Silence continued between the two before Nene had to ask. "Why not?"
"The same reason I reported Ms. Hikari's death last night. I went to see her... to ask her out."
"Um, Jake? Doesn't she have a boyfriend?"
Jake nodded, not even flinching. "She did have one. He's dead too."
Nene blinked.
"Who's dead too?" Both of them turned to the female voice of the same Suvan Hikari they had been speaking about. "Is everything alright? You two look like you have seen a ghost."
"There, you see?" Nene piped up quickly, glad for the escape from what was quickly becoming a more and more uncomfortable conversation.
Jake stared at Suvan in complete shock. "You cant be... you're dead," he stammered before closing his eyes and shaking his head. When he opened his eyes, what he saw was shocked him to full alertness. A tall and slim humanoid boomer with silver plating stood before them, head cocked to the side as Suvan might have if she was confused about something. "What the hell ARE YOU?!?!?"
Nene blinked and looked between Suvan and Jake. Suvan, for her part, had a look on her face of absolute confusion. Jake, on the other hand had jumped to his feet and now stood wide eyed like someone had just thrown at least five ice cubes down his back.
"Why would you ask me such a thing?" Suvan replied, confused. "I thought that was pretty obvious."
"So did I until a few seconds ago!" came the reply.
"JAKE!!! What's wrong with you!" Nene interrupted, thoroughly embarrassed by the behavior of the man she had been talking to. "Suvan, I'm so sorry."
"That's NOT SUVAN! It's a machine!"
"JAKE! You were about to ask this woman out and you dare call her a machine?!?!?" Nene was beside herself as she even considered this.
"Cant you see it, Nene? LOOK!" Jake took her head and applied only enough force to force her to turn and look at Suvan.
"No, I see a human being named Suvan Hikari, not some boomer."
Jake sighed before resolution came to his eyes. "I'm not crazy, and I will prove it!" Before she could even turn around to stop him, Jake had drawn his gun and fired at Suvan.
Nene watched in horror as she heard the blast and a small kink sound of metal, watched as Suvan's head snapped back, but then returned to her previous pose. Her forehead had a hole in it, but the small amount of fluid coming from it was not red, but white ... "What the hell?" Nene mouthed before she saw it. What she was looking at wasn't human after all, but a silver plated boomer, it's metal unblinking eyes fixed on them. Just as suddenly as the illusion had faded, she realized exactly what boomer this was. "Jake... run, NOW!"
Source: Bubble Gum Crisis/Crash
Author: LV426
Chapter 17: Jake's Bad Day
As if having to will himself to enter, Jake boots marched into the ADP headquarters. Yesterday was one of the worst he could have had, but that still didn't excuse him from work today. "No amount of time will make my bet disappear, so might as well get this overwith," he thought rather glumly to himself. Keeping his focus ahead of him, he approached the elevators, hoping no one would call him. He slowly pressed the button to summon it.
"Oh, there you are, Mr. Boots," called a female voice to his immediate left. Jake cringed at his name being called, knowing who it was and that she wouldn't be calling to him for anything he would want to hear. Slowly, he turned toward the secretary, who was waving at him, a smile plastered on her face as there always was.
"Yes?" He didn't bother with her name. He couldn't remember it normally, and last night he had tried to get hammered and forget the day before. His odds of getting close were dramatically slim.
"The chief wanted me to look out for you. He said when you come in, you're to go straight to his office."
"Did he say why?"
"No, only to come."
"Well that's encouraging," Jake thought to himself sarcastically. "But what could it be... hold on a second! I was the one to tell him about the scene yesterday! Maybe they got the guy who did it!" Having brightened his own mood a little, he turned to the secretary once more. "Thank you. I'll handle it."
A little confused, the secretary only nodded, the smile still annoyingly plastered across her face. Jake, on the other hand, strode confidently to the elevators once more, almost unaware that the one he had called was now full and on its way up. He pushed the button one more time.
"Oh great," Nene thought as she watched the elevator open across the room and Jake Boots step into it. She knew if she got in that elevator right now, he would probably be trying to joke with and hit on her the whole trip, and she would have to restrain the urge to impale him with a fork. "Well, I suppose I can wait," was the next thought, but she resisted it. "No... I got in early for a reason, and I probably don't have much time to lose." Her resolve renewed, she broke into a run.
"Hey! Hold that elevator!" she yelled, knowing Jake would be only too happy to. True to form, he stopped questioningly, but his smile said enough and he put his hand in the way of the door so it wouldn't shut on her. She slowed to a walk and stepped in. "Thanks, Jake," she added before leaning against the back of the elevator car, managing to fake some gratitude.
"You know I don't mind..." Jake returned, an unusual amount of cheer in his face and voice.
"I bet you don't," Nene thought to herself, but she kept quiet.
"So, what brings you in this early anyway?"
"27."
"What?" Jake's face showed his confusion.
"Floor 27, please."
"Oh, alright..." Jake pushed the button before his smile returned. "But I have to say, a number is a very weird reason to be in so early."
"Well you're in a mood this morning. What's going on?"
"The chief called me up." Jake's smile broadened as if he was bragging.
Nene fell backwards into the wall behind her. "You're happy the chief called you?" Her voice betrayed just how badly she could not believe what she was hearing.
"Yep!" He nodded enthusiastically, leaving Nene to wonder if the man before her had finally snapped. "This should be very good!"
If Nene had mace, she would be digging for it now. "Umm... I thought when the chief calls someone, it's a bad thing.... Especially when he calls you."
"Yeah... normally..." his tone remained very high spirited, but it waited, and Nene knew he was waiting for her to ask him to continue. She hoped her silence would buy her the time before the elevator stopped and Jake to leave for whatever his cracked little mind was up to. Sadly, she would find no such luck. "...but that changes today! I think they caught the guy who killed Suvan, and if so, he probably wants to thank me for being so quick about the report?"
"Suvan?" Nene blinked.
"Oh, sorry... you may not have known her... officer Hikari."
"Umm... Jake, I don't remember hearing anything about anyone getting killed."
"You poor sheltered girl," he patronized, bringing a slight blush of anger to Nene's face. "Suvan was the girl of my dreams! But when I got the guts together to ask her, it was, too late." After a few seconds, his tone changed from patronizing and dramatic to eagerness. "But, now they know who did it, and when I find out..." He grinned again.
Nene didn't need to be told what he would do, but she also didn't really want to know. "I have run into Ms. Hikari once ore twice, once this morning!" Nene thought, "She isn't dead, and Jake has finally snapped in half!"
Thankfully, she didn't have to deal with Jake beyond that thought. The elevator slowed and the door opened. Jake stepped out whistling. "Well, see you later, Nene. If he gives me a metal, I will be sure to stop by and show it to you!" He waved.
"...uhh.. yeah.... See ya..." Nene managed to stammer out. Then he was gone and the door shut again. Nene slumped against the elevator, a sigh of complete relief.
The elevator door opened one more time and Nene stepped out, slightly shaken by the odd, even for him, behavior of Jake Boots just now. Still, her resolve remained, as well as her reason for being here now. "Still," she allowed herself to think, "I feel sorry for who ever he blames for this."
She closed her mind to such thoughts as she opened the door to the door across the hall from the elevator. "Good. No one here yet," she muttered under her breath as she hit the light switch. She probably didn't need it with the glow of the various monitors around to guide her way, but it was habit, and right now, she wasn't going to worry about that. Nor would she have worried if anyone was there. She just didn't want to be bothered with them right now.
As if she owned the place, Nene stepped past the first few workstations and sat down. The choice was almost random, but she just never liked being so close to the door when working in here; not when Leon could show up to try to scare her. She let her mind rest on that thought while the terminal logged in her ID and password, surprised that she actually missed those moments, now that they could never happen again. She hadn't cried when she heard that Leon was dead. In fact, she hadn't done much of anything. It was as if a sudden blow had frozen her in place, and until now, she had never restarted. But now, as she remembered the childish stunts, as well as the happy times around him, the full realization that he wasn't coming back settled in on her. Despite her best efforts, she fell onto the monitor and sobbed, finally mourning someone who was like a big bother, and is now gone.
The Mercedes pulled into Raven's Garage with the same precision it's driver put into almost everything she did. After pulling in, Sylia shut the engine down and opened the door. It wasn't hard to pick out Dr. Raven; he was talking to a young man who was leaning next to the other car in the garage. The man was only half paying attention to him, however, as he kept glancing at her. She smiled quietly, amused as Dr. Raven kept having to snap the young man's attention back to himself, but decided if she ever wanted to talk to Dr. Raven about the adjustments for the hardsuits, she would have to wait in the main office.
She had just removed her shades and picked up a random automobile magazine when she heard the door open, shut, and the familiar voice of the good doctor. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Sylia," he greeted quickly, "That damn fool wouldn't hear a word of what I was saying."
Sylia nodded, a pleasant smile on her own face. "It's alright. I know how it is. Besides, you couldn't exactly skip over him and not draw attention."
Again, a nod, this time from Dr. Raven. "Well anyway, let's talk inside... best we discuss this kind of business away from public." Without pausing, he spun the sign on the desk to say "Out to Lunch."
Sylia nodded, appreciating the privacy as she always did on Knight Saber business. Without another word, she followed him to the underground section of his garage.
It was several minutes later when Nene finally got control of herself again. The console she was resting on displayed the desktop she was familiar with, but she had to blink tears away to see it clearly. She knew she had a job to. With the skill that she was known for on a computer, she brought up various files, always looking for references on a boomer named Armstrong. What came back to her immediately were old news reports of a renegade boomer of the same name who thought himself the messiah of boomers who would free them from the control of humans.
"Interesting, but what does this have to do with anything? Why would Astis know this boomer?" Nene thought to herself. Using the voice recognition system the ADP used to protect their own files against the system, she found her way into a few of the encrypted files. What she saw here made her eyes widen, both in disbelief and with a tinge of fear.
Before her now as a file that described how, using a fusion boomer body to look human, the personality behind Armstrong had successfully used an anti-Genom terrorist organization to get to and seize control of the then new computer system at Genom 'Alex-01.' Once inside it, he made quick work of taking over as many systems as he could and turned as many boomers on humans as he could, all for the idea that through this move, he could free them from human occupation. Not even using satellite weaponry had stopped it. The only reason he was stopped was because a member of this terrorist organization he used bombed the computer.
Nene leaned back in her chair a moment, trying to let this sink in. "This is the guy Astis knows? The guy who told him we were his enemy?" Her eyes widened again as she considered this idea, as well as how this might reflect on Astis, but she shook her head. "No way. Astis is NOT like that. If he was, Linna would be dead. And she has his trust... so what's the connection? How could this be the same Armstrong? He has never seen us, and he should be dead." That comment, even as she said it, made her shiver. Largo has now done the same stunt to them, and even that similarity sat badly with her. She shook her head, not wanting to consider that just now. "Maybe Astis' own past holds the key."
She began to let her fingers dance across the keyboard and brought up all she could find on the name Astis or anything close to it. There was nothing on file within the ADP records. "Alright, then we will look a little further out." Applying search methods and programs most do not know of, Nene made her request through the internet. Her eyes widened as she saw the results. Before her was a list with only one entry.
It was a single server with the name encrypted. It's IP address changed regularly, even as she watched on the list. Still, the changes were simplistic enough that as long as the computer she was using was fast enough, it could predict the new IP and use it as it changed. "Besides Sylia's, I don't think any other system I know would be able to get this one," she marveled.
Of course when she clicked to look at it, the server was just as encrypted as the name it went under. It also displayed a message, telling her that the server was property of the Japanese Military and that access was strictly prohibited, but she knew she couldn't let that stop her. Shuffling through her pocket book, she produced a disk with the software she would need to give her time to look around before any tracing software found the ADP. "Especially if they are using such old software," she commented to herself with a slight grin.
The secretary's voice buzzed through the chief's comm-speaker on his desk. "Sir? A Mr. Jake Boots is here to see you. He says you called him up."
"Yes I did... please let him in." He cleared his throught after turning off his own speaker.
"Alright, Sir."
In the next moment, Jake Boots opened the door to his office, a big grin plastered on his face, whistling the "Around the World." He stopped when he saw the chief, apparently not noticing the silent anger brimming around him. "What's the word, chief?"
"It should be termination, Boots... and for God's sake, wipe that smirk off your miserable face!" His voice remained relatively level.
"Huh?"
"You hear me, Jake. I should have your badge right now."
"Why?" Jake was stunned and his voice betrayed it.
The chief smiled in his quiet way. He didn't understand how Jake could not know what this was all about, but after watching the man practically skip is way into the office, let alone after being called about breaking the terminal in the one of the forensics labs, he was quite happy to make him squirm a little. "I think you know why, Jake," he said, leaning back. "In fact, why don't you tell me why?"
Jake seemed in deep thought for a moment, and the chief could practically see the gears churning across everything he had done since becoming a member of the ADP. After a moment he spoke. "Because I have been the biggest pain in your ass you have ever known in your career?"
The chief glared. "Can you be more specific?"
"Not really... I didn't try to remember your list last time. Sorry." He bowed in his apology.
The chief was ready to smack him, but held back from even letting it be audible in his voice just yet. "Anything new to add to the list?"
"New, Sir?" Now Jake was much more serious.
"I think you know what I'm talking about."
Jake shook his head. "I can't say I do, Sir."
"Nothing about a terminal being broken in the Forensics Lab yesterday rings a bell?"
Jake blinked and slowly a reddish hue of anger spread across his face. Not caring that it's the chief he was talking to, he slammed his fist down on the desk. "Do you mean to tell me when a beautiful woman, let alone one who is a fellow cop, like Suvan Hikari was murdered, your more concerned with a stupid TERMINAL?!?!?!?"
"Really, Jake... what are you babbling about now?"
"Suvan Hikari... she was murdered, Sir! I was going to talk to her and I found her corpse, her head twisted around completely around."
"I see... then tell me, how is it that she greeted me on my way in this morning?"
Confusion settled over Jake yet again, and the chief enjoyed every second of it. "She greeted you?"
The chief nodded. "I assure you, she is alive and VERY well. But you, on the other hand, still have to answer for that terminal."
"But... I saw her corpse."
"Are you calling me a liar, Mr. Boots?" The chief's tone was a dangerous one... he would not tolerate any more of this kind of talk.
Jake was lucky enough to catch the connotations. "No, Sir... I'm just trying to figure out what I saw then..."
"Probably something in your daydreams." He sighed, not wanting to deal with Jake anymore, but glad to have gotten this chance to get all of his own anger out. "In anycase, expect the bill for that terminal's repairs to come out of your check."
"Yes, sir..." Now Jake sounded tired and down... exactly what the chief had wanted.
"You are dismissed."
Nene leaned back in her chair and stared absently at the ceiling. That server had a lot of answers for her, but nothing she could use to figure out if this Armstrong she had read about was indeed the same one Astis knew. All the answers there did were make new questions in her mind. "Astis, who are you really?" was the main one, and it kept bouncing back and forth in her head. It was comforting, though, since the same answers that made her ask this also let her feel safer about him hanging around Linna. She knew he wouldn't lift a finger to hurt any of them.
Her eyes just began to close as she let herself at least take some comfort in that before she heard the door open and close, almost slam, shut. She glanced in the direction and saw a very upset looking Jake make his way into the room. "Looks like he finally had his illusion shattered," she thought idly as her mind went back over the elevator ride of the morning. "I hope he doesn't go postal... oh great, he is coming this way." With a groan, she sat up, not wanting to even offer a target to the man approaching. She didn't want anyone trying to sneak up on her right now, much less him.
Jake walked up to Nene's desk, his good mood gone for the day. He could tell she didn't really want to hear it, so he didn't say anything. He just grabbed a spare chair and sat down next to her desk. His mind wandered over his resent encounter with the chief. "But, but I saw her," he finally stammered out loud, just unable to comprehend how a corpse like that could be anything but a corpse.
"Saw who?" Nene asked, really not in the mood to talk to him, but liking a silent and sullen Jake Boots a lot less.
Jake looked up at Nene, contemplating talking to her a moment before replying. "Suvan... I saw her dead on the floor. How could she be alive?" Nene remained silent, whether it was because she couldn't or didn't want to answer him, Jake couldn't be sure. He shook his head, "Maybe I'm just going insane."
"You convinced me of that in the elevator," Nene replied under her breath.
"Hmmm?"
Nene blushed, surprised he had heard her. After getting up the nerves, she repeated herself, knowing Jake would not leave her alone until she did and wanting to cut to the end of that circuit. "You convinced me you were crazy in the elevator this morning."
Jake stared at her a moment, his expression not angry, but scary all the same, especially when you consider who was behind it. Finally he cracked a small grin. "Yeah, I was over the top, wasn't I?" Nene only nodded before he continued. "I shouldn't have come in today."
Silence continued between the two before Nene had to ask. "Why not?"
"The same reason I reported Ms. Hikari's death last night. I went to see her... to ask her out."
"Um, Jake? Doesn't she have a boyfriend?"
Jake nodded, not even flinching. "She did have one. He's dead too."
Nene blinked.
"Who's dead too?" Both of them turned to the female voice of the same Suvan Hikari they had been speaking about. "Is everything alright? You two look like you have seen a ghost."
"There, you see?" Nene piped up quickly, glad for the escape from what was quickly becoming a more and more uncomfortable conversation.
Jake stared at Suvan in complete shock. "You cant be... you're dead," he stammered before closing his eyes and shaking his head. When he opened his eyes, what he saw was shocked him to full alertness. A tall and slim humanoid boomer with silver plating stood before them, head cocked to the side as Suvan might have if she was confused about something. "What the hell ARE YOU?!?!?"
Nene blinked and looked between Suvan and Jake. Suvan, for her part, had a look on her face of absolute confusion. Jake, on the other hand had jumped to his feet and now stood wide eyed like someone had just thrown at least five ice cubes down his back.
"Why would you ask me such a thing?" Suvan replied, confused. "I thought that was pretty obvious."
"So did I until a few seconds ago!" came the reply.
"JAKE!!! What's wrong with you!" Nene interrupted, thoroughly embarrassed by the behavior of the man she had been talking to. "Suvan, I'm so sorry."
"That's NOT SUVAN! It's a machine!"
"JAKE! You were about to ask this woman out and you dare call her a machine?!?!?" Nene was beside herself as she even considered this.
"Cant you see it, Nene? LOOK!" Jake took her head and applied only enough force to force her to turn and look at Suvan.
"No, I see a human being named Suvan Hikari, not some boomer."
Jake sighed before resolution came to his eyes. "I'm not crazy, and I will prove it!" Before she could even turn around to stop him, Jake had drawn his gun and fired at Suvan.
Nene watched in horror as she heard the blast and a small kink sound of metal, watched as Suvan's head snapped back, but then returned to her previous pose. Her forehead had a hole in it, but the small amount of fluid coming from it was not red, but white ... "What the hell?" Nene mouthed before she saw it. What she was looking at wasn't human after all, but a silver plated boomer, it's metal unblinking eyes fixed on them. Just as suddenly as the illusion had faded, she realized exactly what boomer this was. "Jake... run, NOW!"