Mandatory Disclaimer: Since I didn't put one up for the first chapter, I did want to point out one thing in case you were concerned – No Boomers were actually hurt during the making of this fanfic.
Now on to more important matters…
Another Fortunate Accident
Ch. 2 – "I'm a Vigilante, not a Doctor Damnit!"
"Linna… Linna… Speak to me… please!" Priss beckoned hysterically, ignoring the other screaming voice in her helmet.
"Priss! Damnit, what the hell is going on?" Sylia's only response was a few quiet sobs over the com system, but even they stopped after a few moments. "Nene! Nene!"
"Wha… What happened?" the teenager weakly asked, rolling over and getting up off the floor. She looked up in response to Sylia's cries in her head.
"Nene! Where's Linna? What's going on up there?"
Nene could see just enough through the smoky room to make out two upright figures… a blue hardsuit supporting a green one. "Priss… she did it! She saved Linna from the boomer!"
"Nene, her vitals aren't good. What's wrong with Linna?"
Nene checked the scans through her hardsuit. Although not conclusive, something didn't look right. "I can't get a good reading from here… hold on a sec… Priss! What happened to Linna?" Nene asked while starting to run over to the two Knight Sabers. She stumbled slightly while still trying to shake out the cobwebs from getting slammed into the charging Priss earlier. Regaining her footing, Nene continued on until the floor jerked underneath her.
"Nene, what the hell was that!" Sylia cried out.
An explosion rocked the back of the office as the startled red saber tried to spot the source of the disturbance. "The boomer! It's not dead yet!" she asked, now advancing more cautiously. "Priss why didn't you… oh no…" Nene stopped dead in her tracks at the gristly sight before her… it was more than she was prepared to take in. A small but growing red puddle lay underneath Linna's body… blood dripping from the ragged, caved in midsection of her hardsuit. Linna's arms lay lifelessly by her side, full weight bore by Priss' trembling armored arms encircled around her. The green and orange helmet looked slightly dented on top with visible cracks growing from a few fractures on the sides.
"LINNA! Sylia, Linna's hurt bad. Oh my God! Priss! What happened! PRISS! Answer me!" Nene received no response from the blue saber. Her arms appeared locked in a death grip, unwilling to let Linna go. Another explosion marked the boomer's progress in the distance as Sylia's voice screamed into Nene's ears.
"Nene! Get Linna out of there now! Do whatever it takes!"
A weak voice cracked through the insanity around the burning office building… "uhhnnn… my head… my stomach… feels like… "
"LINNA! Thank God!" Priss finally broke out of the trance as the green saber flexed her arms and began to return the embrace. The sudden jerking motion of her body attempting to double over caught Priss off guard.
Linna pulled out of the grip she was in and collapsed in a heap on the carpeted floor. Her hands reflexively covered up the disfigured section of armor as a stark realization of pain shot through the mental fog. "Oh God!… Shit!… Hurts!… Priss… help!"
"Linna! Hold on!" Priss cried out as picked Linna up carefully, sliding one arm underneath her legs and lifting her body off the floor.
The boomer chose that particular moment to make its ill-timed reappearance in their section of the office.
"Nene! Take Linna back to the pit now," Priss ordered as the burning fury of revenge invaded her soul. She lowered the green figure into Nene's waiting arms gingerly, then turned towards the advancing monstrosity and flexed her arms in preparation. "Payback time bitch!" the blue cladded Knight seethed.
"Sylia, I'm inbound now," Nene announced, carefully manipulating Linna's shaking body out the window towards the mobile pit.
"Thank God! Its about time," Sylia added, relieved that Linna was finally being pulled out of immediate danger.
The heavily mutated boomer lumbered through the wrecked remains of the office space, core programming wiped past the point of recognition. It was no longer able to analyze for the threatening vigilante lurking off to the side.
Priss didn't particularly care about the boomers problems at the moment. The only image in her mind was of the beast holding the battered green hardsuit like a trophy in front of her. Rage ripped through the office walls as she attacked the former accounting assistant with a vengeance. The contest that ensued wasn't a fight… it was a bloodbath.
Priss flew into the crew compartment of the mobile pit still wearing her hardsuit. "How is she?" the concerned singer asked taking off her helmet and tossing it to the floor.
"I'm not sure. Linna hasn't said anything since Nene brought her in here. I'm not a doctor, but I know she needs help that we can't give her here," Sylia replied worriedly. Linna was lying in a reclining chair still in her hardsuit with Sylia and Nene (also still suited up) hovering over her. A first aid kit was opened on the floor next to the chair, turned over on its side with contents spilled out in disarray. "We've got to get her hardsuit off first," Sylia announced.
Nene gently pulled her cracked helmet off first, first revealing tear soaked cheeks. Nene gasped in anxiety as sweat beads were practically raining off of her forehead. Her glassy eyes didn't react at all to the change in lighting from having the helmet removed. "My God, she must be burning up."
Still holding her bloodied midsection, Linna's body began to shiver straight through the hardsuit.
"Linna… Linna we have to stand you up to get the hardsuit off," Sylia said trying to calm the newest Knight Saber as soothingly as she could given the deteriorating circumstances. Her eyes remained frozen, staring through the side of the mobile pit.
"I think its shock," Nene explained as Sylia and Priss turned to her. "Or at least it looks like shock from what I learned at our first aid course at the ADP."
"Nene, see if you can get help for Linna while Priss and I get her out of the hardsuit."
"Ok," she agreed waveringly, not sure if she should stay and help her fallen friend now or go to the computer terminal to carry out the plan they had discussed just before Priss had come in the compartment.
"It's alright Nene," Sylia reassured her. "Teamwork is the fastest way to get Linna through this. I need you to arrange for help now so it will be ready when we get her out of the suit." She followed Nene over to the computer for a moment while Priss edged closer to Linna.
Leaning down with arms once again circling her shoulders, Priss lowered her lips to Linna's ear. She whispered in a voice low enough not to be heard by either Sylia or Nene… "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen… not from my hands… please forgive me…" A tear fell off her chin and onto a green armored shoulder. Wiping the tears away and composing her appearance, Priss raised her voice back up and spoke to Linna again. "Come on…lets get you out of that suit." Gently lifting her still unresponsive form, Priss stood Linna up as Sylia approached the now standing green suit.
"I can manually release the suit's seals, but she's still going to need help getting out in the state she's in right now."
"I've got her. Just do it," Priss replied sternly.
Sylia started to feel for the internal latches inside Linna's suit, but stopped at the sight of Priss' right hand. Splattered with blood and mixed with small pieces of gray and green armor, questions flashed into Sylia's mind momentarily. However, she pushed them to the background as assisting Linna took precedence. As soon as Linna's safe… Sylia planned to herself, mentally noting to find out just what had happened as soon as she could. She reached into the top of Linna's suit as Priss continued to hold Linna upright.
Staring into her dilated eyes, Priss began to encourage the shaking woman. "Linna, hang in there. I know you can hear me. We're going to get you help."
Linna's eyes fluttered in response to her voice.
"That's it! Don't quit on me Linna, you can do it! Just hang in there a little longer." The suit's latch finally released freeing the front of the armor to swing open… with Linna still attached.
A blood-curtailing scream filled the inside of the mobile pit. "PRISS!" Sylia shouted.
"I said I've got her!" she screamed back, shifting her arms around Linna's exposed upper body and gingerly pulling her out of the suit.
"Careful of her stomach!"
"I know that!" The blue hardsuited woman lifted Linna up into her arms and cradled her shaking body. The screaming stopped as Linna closed her eyes, still whimpering in pain… tears streaking down her face.
Priss once again began to speak softly to Linna, trying her best to add some comfort to the overwhelming anguish in her own heart. She looked down the area Linna continued to cover with her now bare hands. A surprisingly little amount of actual damage greeted her eyes compared to what Priss imagined her midsection to look like after the knucklebomb had gone off. Maybe it's not that bad… A heavy groan from the woman in her arms gave a decidedly different impression however. "Where are we bringing her?"
"Nene, are you ready?" Sylia asked in response to Priss' question.
"I've put in the emergency notice so the ambulance should be at Hugh Geit in a couple of minutes."
"What's going on?" Priss questioned defensively.
"Set her down on the chair so we can get her softsuit off."
"What!"
"We don't have time to argue about this Priss," Sylia shot back. "Linna needs medical attention that we can't give her. The softsuit will raise more than a couple of questions about who she is, especially around a boomer incident. If any connection is made between her and the Knight Sabers before she gets that attention, you and I both know that the ADP will probably shoot first and let medial services be rendered later."
The threat appeared to work as Priss lowered the still shaking form back into the chair. Sylia reached down on the floor and picked up two pairs of scissors from the emptied first aid kit. Nene began to work on dressing Linna's wounds temporarily as Sylia handed one pair of scissors over to Priss. She looked at the offering hesitantly as Linna's agonized groans drowned out the silence.
Looking down at Linna's tortured expression, Priss stood up with new resolve and stepped back from the chair "Just a sec," she said springing her suit's locks and hurriedly stepping out. Priss ran back over to the opposite side of Linna and took the pair of scissors from Sylia. She leaned over to Linna's ear again and stroked her hair with a free hand. "We've got to get your softsuit off so we can get you some help." Linna didn't immediately respond to Priss' voice, so she continued to try and comfort her friend as soothingly as she could.
Sylia watched in fascination at the overtones in Priss' words. In all the time I've known her, I've never seen her act this way towards anyone. Reality sank back in as a sense of panic returned to her thoughts. "Alright Priss, lets hurry up so we can get Linna out of here." The two women worked quickly as Nene watched over, waiting in the wings after applying temporary patches to the gouges below Linna's abdomen. The injuries weren't numerous, but the few she did have appeared to be deep.
Sylia explained the plan that she and Nene had come up with before Priss had arrived. "A wounded employee of Hugh Geit will be much easier to explain than an injured softsuited woman wondering the streets around a boomer incident."
"We're just going to leave her in front of Hugh Geit, without a shred of clothing on!" Priss exclaimed, not wanting to believe what she was hearing.
"Nene's already scoped out the site on the computer and has it covered," Sylia explained as she continued to remove parts of Linna's softsuit.
"I'll wait until I see the emergency crews and attract their attention towards Linna's hiding spot," Nene added somewhat optimistically, although her body language seemed to tell a different story.
"And this is the best you could come up with? You never planned on us getting hurt out here and needing medical attention?" Priss shot out accusingly.
"I normally have contingency plans, but this boomer didn't appear to warrant them," Sylia retorted with a bit of an accusatory tone in her voice as well. "Now if you're done, can we get Linna out of the softsuit? We can finish this discussion later." The snipping motion of scissors on fabric answered her question. Once the softsuit was completely removed, Nene cradled the naked woman with her hardsuit and left to bring her the couple of blocks from their quiet alley parking space to the Hugh Geit building.
To be continued…