Another Fortunate Accident
Ch. 11 – Second String
The window did nothing to slow Nene's slide across the super-waxed tiling of the office building. The glass shattered in millions of fragments as the street some 30 floors before began to rush towards the horrified Knight Saber. Instinct finally kicked in with a roar of thrusters first slowing then stopping the descent just a few floors down. The jets howled in taxed effort as Nene propelled herself back through the newly created opening in the building.
"Nene, what happened?" Mackey's voice piped in over the com system.
"Slipped across the floor… it's like an ice rink in there…" she reported a bit distractedly as she flew back in the window only to find her new trajectory on a direct path straight at the mutating boomer. More struggling to keep her balance, Nene used her momentum to her advantage. Spinning her shoulders in a very practiced motion, the young girl pivoted on one sliding foot and delivered a glancing blow directly at the boomer's head. The attack completed, she noted the rapidly approaching wall now in her vision. Seeing no other way to keep from bouncing off the wall, Nene punched a hole through the drywall and grabbed a support beam inside as she steadied her body's movements from under her.
"Nice move Nene!" Mackey encouraged.
"Thanks, but I don't think that's enough to stop it," she said cautiously, looking back at the still upright beast.
With an almost humanlike shake of its head, the boomer stared directly at Nene and began to trudge towards her on legs enhanced with suction-cup like devices.
Nene felt her feet sliding beneath her as panic took hold of her mind. Reflexively, she pulled up her arm-mounted weapon towards the approaching target and fired off a few rounds at it. Unfortunately, the shifting of the arm moved her center of balance and caused her feet to completely slip from under her, throwing the arm up and sending the darts off the intended course. The only thing still keeping Nene upright was her other arm supported through the wall.
Mackey couldn't tell just how bad things were getting, although from Nene's panicked head motions he wasn't feeling too comfortable with the situation. A feeling of helplessness gripped his soul as he realized how little he could do to aid his friend. "Just try and stay calm…" he offered out loud, more to himself than the receiver on the other end of the communications array.
"Easy for you to say!" Nene shot back sharply, not realizing the intent of the words. Pulling herself up, she could feel the vibrations through the support beam in the wall due to the boomer's proximity. The shuddering transmitted itself through the armor to her hand, down her arm, and throughout her whole body. The returning sensation of isolation invaded her mind, blocking out the course of common sense. Just finally steadying herself from the failed projectile attack, Nene hurled herself at the boomer instead of waiting patiently for an opening to appear. She cocked her arm back and swung towards the boomers chest, going for the immediate kill shot by aiming directly for the core. The lone Saber was so intent on keeping her balance once the armored fist hit the target, she never considered the repercussions of a miss… which is exactly what the evading boomer caused her to do. The beast shifted on one suctioned leg as Nene's arm swung wildly just inches away cutting an arc through the air as she spun herself completely off balance on the nearly frictionless floor. With nothing to support her this time, Nene crashed hard to the ground flat on her back.
"ooooowwww…." she weakly croaked out.
"Nene! Are you OK?" Mackey spat out excitedly, trying to make heads or tails out of what the display was showing him. The video feed he received was directly from Nene's helmet, essentially the same thing she could see from inside the hardsuit. What he saw next made him turn ghostly white from inside the mobile pit… he couldn't imagine what must have been going through Nene's mind.
Glowing red eyes burned from the boomer's disfigured face as it came into view through the remote feed. "SYLIA! Nene's in trouble! Hurry!" he yelled out towards the change room of the mobile pit. Looking back at the screen, he couldn't see the boomer's face anymore. The darkened view didn't allow for much in the way of details. "Nene what's going on? I can't tell what's happening…"
"Can't… move… it's pinning my arms and legs down…" she forced out as the visible field of vision through the camera thrashed about from the trapped teenagers struggles. Part of whatever it was above her opened up to reveal an object that looked frighteningly like a gun… pointed directly into the camera mounted in Nene's helmet.
"Mackey, what's going… oh no… is that… that's the boomer!" Sylia burst out of the change area in full armor just in time to make out the gristly situation.
"Sylia! Sylia… help… its too heavy… I can't get this thing off of me!" Nene cried through the audio feed.
Both Stingrays watched in horror as the barrel of the 'gun' discharged directly into the screen, sending the monitor's display into darkness.
Silence filled the inside of the mobile pit… until Nene's strained voice cracked through the ice.
"Wha… What's happening?"
"Nene! Nene, are you OK?" Sylia worriedly asked.
"I still can't move, but… YHAAAAA!"
The scream pierced though the speaker system at the console as the screen swirled about momentarily before resolving into the boomers arm… with the rotating buffer attached.
"It's… It's just cleaning her helmet!" an elated Mackey shouted out, nearly jumping out of the chair with relieved joy.
"Just stay calm Nene… don't make any moves to provoke it… I'm coming up now," Sylia cautioned.
"Like I have much of a choice… it's still pinning me to the floor," the shaken girl nervously acknowledged.
"Mackey, launch me as soon as I give the word," the White Saber ordered.
"Just let me know when you're ready," he replied.
A few moments later Sylia's voice chimed in over the com system to the waiting Mackey at the control console. "Send me out Mackey."
"Ready… GO!" he announced activating the mini launcher in the mobile pit. As he sent Sylia out of the pit, the display continued to show the boomer's cleaning efforts on the helpless Saber. He could hear each of Nene's stress filled breaths of air through the com system as she desperately fought to remain calm.
"Hang on Nene. Sylia's on her way now."
"Ok… Thanks Mackey," she nervously replied.
The boomer repeated the process of applying cleaning solution to her helmet two more times as she tried to keep Sylia's advice in mind… "don't make any moves to provoke it" Sylia's words replayed themselves to her. A garbled roar from the beast above sent fresh shivers down Nene's spine as the boomer's arm flashed upwards above her helmet for a moment… just before its hand formed into a fist and streaked towards her head. Without even a chance to scream, the young Saber reflexively jerked to the side to try and avoid the crushing blow. Fortunately, the boomers weight was shifted just enough to allow Nene to free herself from its restraining grip. The boomers fist punched a hole inches away from the red helmet as she scrambled away from her attacker, momentarily firing thrusters to create separation on the slick surface. Sliding back to the wall, Nene managed to balance herself enough to get back to a standing position again. "God that was close!" she breathed out in momentary relief.
The boomer turned back towards her with a fury as it lumbered forward once again.
"Enough is enough already!" Nene cried out as she pushed off from the wall circling the boomer as she began to use her jump thrusters as maneuvering jets, maintaining a safe distance from the plodding beast while looking for an opening. Finally circling around enough to gain a small advantage, she leaped up into the boomers back and struck hard with a punch/kick combo, sending the mutating boomer on its face in a heap.
"Alright! Way to go Nene!" Mackey cheered on through the helmet.
"Time to finish this!" Nene cried out as she leapt off the floor and aimed through the boomer's back with her hand formed in the shape of an arrow, pent on piercing all the way to the core. She dropped down towards the still stunned malfunctioning janitorial assistant for the certain kill… until a hailstorm of machinegun fire thundered into the side of her armor. The wave of bullets knocked Nene to the ground but luckily didn't pierce the protective armor surrounding her. The attack sent her sliding into the pile of furniture in the corner of the cleared office space. She groaned in agonized pain at the hammer like pounding the bullets delivered.
"Nene, are you OK? What just happened?" Mackey spurted out worriedly once again.
"…don't know… felt like…" she started to speak as she looked over in the direction of the disturbance only to find a uniformed squad of AD Police hunched over with weapons at the ready aimed in her general direction. "Damn… never here when you need them… always in the way when you don't…" she joked half-heartedly at the unwelcome arrival of her co-workers. She struggled to regain her footing amongst the mound of mangled cubicles.
A bright flash from the squad of semi-soldiers preceded a flurry of flashing warnings from her virtual HUD. Nene fired her thrusters without thought of a direction at the threat of the incoming projectile. A rocket-propelled grenade annihilated the pile of office furniture, hurling the not distant enough Nene hard into a supporting column. The exploding debris shot flames and smoke throughout the enclosed office space, pitching the room into darkness.
The ADP squad prepared to launch another assault on the downed targets just as a ghost-like figure materialized right before their eyes. Two more experienced plain-clothes officers beat a hasty retreat at the emergence of the White Saber in the midst of the battle, while the remaining force tried to track the swiftly sliding object. Muffled screams were followed shortly by an explosion in the opening the AD Police were using, scattering the remaining uniformed personnel out of the area.
Sylia cautiously maneuvered through the smoke over to where her sensors indicated the Red Saber had fallen… only to find she was already back on her feet again, using the dented column as support. "Nene, are you OK?"
"Been better," she commented shortly, rubbing the slightly dented right side of her hardsuit. "First the boomer then the ADP… anybody else want to take a shot at me today?"
"Speaking of the boomer…" Sylia added as a large object began to take shape out from the smoke filled space. Just as she could make out the glowing red eyes of their assailant, it began to rain inside the office. The sprinkler system activated instantly dousing the sprouting flames and beginning the cleansing process of clearing the smoke from the room.
The boomer adapted well to the added challenge of maneuvering on a nearly frictionless floor covered with water, the added tension of the liquid aiding the suctioning ability of its leg mounted attachments. Unfortunately, the two Sabers weren't as quick to adjust. The boomers buffered hand exploded into a flurry of tentacles directed towards the remaining Knight Sabers. Nene dodged with a burst of thrusters only to slip and fall on the wetted tiling. Sylia performed a similar maneuver, sliding over to another supporting column to maintain her balance.
"This isn't working Sylia… we've got to try something else," the Red Saber said as she struggled to regain her footing.
"I've got an idea," Mackey interjected over the com system.
"Make it quick. Our batteries won't last forever up here," Sylia said with a hint of frustration breaking through her voice.
The boomer continued to press its advantage as the two Sabers fought just to stay upright and out of the reach of the heavily mutated boomer. Suddenly, the beasts eyes flickered and steadied for a moment as the attacks ceased. Sylia and Nene, separated by a few meters, watched in amazement as the boomer simply plodded between them towards the glass wall.
"What's it doing?" Nene questioned.
"Cleaning the windows on the outside of the building," Mackey announced cheerily.
"Wha… How the hell…"
"I looked up the specs on Genom's servers… a rigged signal from the automated scaffolding software can trigger the boomer to go outside to clean the windows," he proudly announced.
"I could kiss you right now," the proud hacker exclaimed. Silence filled her helmet as the literal meaning of what she had just said finally caught up to Nene. She thought she could 'hear' Mackey blushing through the com system, although she wasn't sure.
"I think he may have fainted," Sylia joked.
"I… I'm fine," Mackey finally stammered out, obviously flustered.
The boomer trudged closer to the scaffolding, which had just lowered into place outside of the 30th floor.
"Sylia, what do we do when the boomer gets on the scaffolding?" Nene asked.
"We will cut the supports from the roof," Sylia replied coldly.
"Are you sure that will kill it? And what about the people below?" Nene began to question worriedly.
"The ADP should have the area below secured. If the boomer somehow survives after falling from this height, even the ADP should be able to deal with it then."
"I hope you're right."
The boomer suddenly stopped, shook it's head, and turned back towards the startled Knight Sabers across the room.
"Mackey what happened?" Sylia asked.
"I… I'm not sure…" he admitted.
"I'd say it changed its mind…" Nene added a bit dejectedly.
Gunfire erupted all around the boomer as the beast toppled over from the surprise attack. The wave of bullets ripped apart the suctioning devices around the beasts legs, effectively rendering it immobile for the time being.
"Looks like the ADP are back for more," the Red Saber reported.
As if she had spoke directly to them, the ADP turned the gunfire towards Nene and Sylia.
"There's no time to deal with both of them," Sylia cautioned.
Looking over at the fallen boomer, an idea popped into Nene's head. "I'll end this right now!" she shouted out. She launched her hardsuit into the air with a blast of thrusters. One reason was to reach the fallen boomer … the other to avoid the ADP attack. Nearly skimming the low ceiling, Nene flew over to the boomer and turned her body around in midair, thrusting her feet down into the boomers form.
The kick thundered through the mass of the boomer, sliding it towards the single broken pane of glass… the same one Nene had flown out of earlier. The 'idea' Nene had was to use that window to send the boomer to the ground below since the suspended scaffolding didn't reach that far over.
As she landed on her hands and knees, Nene tried to fire the jets again to distance herself from the boomer, only to have her request denied by the hardsuit as low power warnings flashed in her helmet. Something jerked at her leg as the Red Saber was pulled to the ground and towards the wall. She looked down to see a tentacle wrapped around one leg attaching her to the boomer, who was sailing out of the broken window and into the night. The frictionless floor offered no assistance whatsoever. The only thing Nene could try and do in the split second of time left was to fire a dart into the tentacle to free herself. The ploy worked as the thin strand dissolved from around her leg… but it was already too late. Nene looked down in horror as the supporting tile disappeared from beneath her to reveal the distant street below starting to rush towards her.
Time seemed to slow down for the teenager… the rapidly approaching ground below… the boomer crashing into an ADP car… the car exploding into flames… tumbling through the air… voices screaming over the com channel… the mirrored building rushing by… frantically rerouting power in the hardsuit… thrusters sputtering to life… then… impact…
Thinking Nene was flying in to crush the core of the boomer, Sylia watched the Red Saber's maneuvers from a distance, more concerned with the ADP attacks at the moment. She glanced over in time to see the spectacular kick delivered to the boomer. She watched the boomer fly out the window… only to realize too late that Nene was somehow attached to it. Everything happened too fast to even think about helping out. "NENE!" Sylia reached the broken window just in time to see the ADP car explode from the boomer's impact. The shrinking red hardsuit tumbled below as Sylia's heart stopped at the realization that Nene's thrusters weren't coming on. A brief flash of light from the previously silent jets gave her a moment of hope… before a sickening cessation of motion followed shortly by the distinct sound of metal crashing into concrete dashed them completely.
"Nene! Sylia! What happened!" Mackey's panicked voice blared out. "I just lost Nene's signal… where is she?" Switching over to view Sylia's feed, Mackey's own heart stopped as he could see what she was looking at… the deathly still form of a red hardsuit partially embedded in a crater on the distant ground below.
"oh god… Nene! Can you hear me?" the White Saber called out through the com channel as she jumped down to her fallen teammate. Sylia landed just beside the red hardsuit, the surrounding chaos of screams, shouts, and flames fading into the back of her subconscious. She looked down at the hardsuit lying face up, partially buried into the concrete of the sidewalk, the faceless helmet staring into the smoke filled night sky. She reached down with one hand to touch the motionless Saber. Up close she could see spider cracks around the visible portions of her helmet and upper torso.
"Sylia… is she…?" Mackey whispered solemnly.
"I don't…" the Knight Saber's leader started to speak before something reminiscent of a sledgehammer slammed into her left side, blasting Sylia across the street nearly into the next building over. "...damnit…" she weakly croaked out turning over and looking back at the smoking cannon of a K-suit, blue armor glowing by the rising flames of the destroyed ADP patrol car. A few other ADP soldiers surrounded the K-suit, guns drawn on her position. "…ADP never quit…" she complained to herself.
Parts of an intelligible static filled communication cracked through the helmets internal speakers. …Mackey…com system must be dead now… Warning lights flickered inside Sylia's display, showing a rapidly lowering power supply as well as various system failures. "…can't end… not like this…" She quickly evaluated her battery status. …about a minute left… not enough time… Sylia looked past the ADP core, over at the unmoving red hardsuit and made the hardest split-second decision of her life... a decision to live to fight another day… and to leave her teammate behind. "I'm sorry Nene… please forgive me…" she whispered, trying to somehow convince herself that it was a posthumous apology. The White Saber leapt to her feet and prepared to leave the battle behind when the K-suit pitched wildly to one side before exploding into a red-hot fireball, scattering remains of the surrounding ADP officers with it.
A huge mass of metal, assault guns, and cleaning utensils stepped through the wreckage of the ADP armor, glowing red eyes still burning brightly, focused directly at Sylia. A brief flash of machinegun fire temporarily distracted the boomer until it answered with the rapport of several protruding weapons of its own, silencing the disorganized response. The boomer turned back towards the White Saber, intent on getting revenge for its hellish suffering.
Sylia's initial reaction was to bolt from the path of the monstrosity… that attempt failed miserably as one of the leg actuators froze from the damage inflicted by the K-suit. She fell over, landing on her bruised left side as the boomer approached menacingly closer. …about 45 seconds… she noted, trying to catch her breath while looking at her power meter. Sylia stood back up, compensating for the failed actuator, and faced the boomer with blade drawn. …no time for this… She prepared to defend herself anyway in the last few minutes she was likely to be alive. More alarms flashed on the HUD as she tried to move, telling her she wasn't going to get very far as the beast approached closer. If the boomer doesn't kill me like this, the ADP probably will… she resigned to herself.
Just as she braced for the coming attack, the boomer's body shuddered, red eyes sparked then waned before dying out completely. The hulking mass fell forward with a resounding clang… with a certain red hardsuit latched onto its back, arm buried deep inside of the boomer's body.
"Nene! Your alive!" she shouted into the dead com system, limping over to the Red Saber.
Nene didn't move from her position on the back of the boomer, hardsuit power apparently drained completely from the last-ditch attack on the boomer.
Sylia pulled the teenager from the back of the dead boomer and draped one red arm over her shoulders. …maybe 30 seconds if I'm lucky… she thought to herself after reviewing the irregular power readings from her suit. Looking into the rising smoke from the surrounding fires, she plotted out the best course to try and escape. With a mental crossing of her fingers, the White Saber activated her thrusters… and was rewarded with a blue flash followed by upward motion from the mangled urban battlefield.
A certain ADP officer smiled at the sight of the two Knight Sabers lifting off into the sky. "I thought the red one was finished for sure," Leon commented to his partner.
"The white one didn't fare much better this time. I wonder where the other two are hiding… I can't remember the last time the blue Knight Saber wasn't involved in a boomer incident."
"I was just thinking the same thing. They could have really used her this time out," Leon added. "I wonder if something happened to her during the military boomer incident this past weekend we didn't see?"
"I don't think so," Daily replied. "However, I did hear some rumors of a pretty serious in house incident at Hugh Geit…"
"Well, don't leave me hanging Wong! Spit it out!" the impatient one turned on his partner.
"Since the ADP didn't get called in on that one, I haven't heard much… but a friend of mine that works with the hospital had an interesting story to tell…"
A tense few moments and several hundred meters later, Sylia landed beside the mobile pit and banged on the door. Not more than two seconds later the door slid open to reveal a very distraught Mackey, who scooped up the Red Saber by her arms and dragged her on the floor inside with Sylia crawling gingerly behind. The two Knight Sabers remained on the floor, sheer exhaustion and the weight of their dead hardsuits holding them down. The Red Saber's helmet motioned back and forth, surveying her surroundings.
Nene's head motions told Mackey all he wanted to know right away. "She's alive!" he yelled to his sister.
Nene reached for her helmet to pull it off, which Mackey helped with as well. Lifting the cracked covering out of the way revealed a worn out blond haired girl gulping in breaths of air. Her eyes were closed with a trickle of blood running from a corner of her mouth down her chin.
Mackey was still positioned in front of Nene on the floor, looking at her face upside down. "You're alive! Are you OK? Is anything broken? I was so worried…" Mackey rapidly shot out the series of questions and concerns as Nene opened her eyes to him.
Her voiceless response was to wipe the blood from her mouth and place one hand behind Mackey's neck. She pulled his head down as the other teenager tensed up reflexively at her touch. She brought him all the way into a gentle kiss directly on his lips. She kissed him until she felt his tension dissolve away… and then let him go, still struggling to catch her own breath.
Sylia, who had pulled her own helmet off, just lay on the ground in shock staring at the two teenagers sharing a very intimate moment in her presence.
Mackey, with cheeks turned deep red, just stared down into Nene's upside down face watching her breathing finally become more regular. After basking in the afterglow for a few more moments, he gathered up the courage to ask a question. "So… why did you do that?"
"Help me out of the hardsuit first…" Nene requested breathlessly.
After popping the locks on the powerless armor still lying on the floor, Mackey held on to Nene's arms and gently coaxed her sweat-covered body out of the tight fitting suit. Helping the blond haired girl to her feet, he supported Nene over to a chair, which she promptly collapsed into. Mackey sat on a corner of the chair sitting side by side with her. He gathered the exhausted girl into a hug, which she warmly returned, resting her throbbing head on his shoulder.
Sylia struggled out of her own hardsuit as she watched the two remaining members of the Knight Sabers 'bond' more closely than she could have ever hoped… or feared. The problem was she didn't really know which she felt at the moment. This could complicate things a bit more than I planned on, but given the alternative… Sylia shuddered inwardly at just how close she had come to losing everything. Two times during the battle she thought Nene was dead, or very close to it. On top of that, her own inattention had almost cost Sylia her own life. However, the worst part was the building guilt of the self-incriminating knowledge that she had (at one point) decided to leave Nene behind. But she's still alive and here with us… she even saved my life… for a second time… A small smile grew on Sylia's own tired face as she walked back to the change area to get ready to drive back to the Lady 633 building, taking some comfort that fate had somehow turned in their favor in the end after all.
After a few minutes of rest, Nene looked up into Mackey's eyes with a slight grin forming on her face. "When Sylia was carrying me back here, I realized just how lucky I was to be alive… how I had taken some things for granted… I promised myself I wouldn't do that anymore, and I thought of you."
The color of Mackey's face nearly matched the red of the armor lying open on the floor.
Nene continued as she looked down at the hardsuit. "I haven't known you for that long, but… you're one of the nicest persons I've ever met. You are so caring… hearing your voice out there tonight… it really helped me get through the tough spots." She looked back into Mackey's still red face… into his eyes… "I guess what I really wanted to say was… thank you." At that, she lifted up her lips to brush against his cheek then drew him into another tight embrace. Nene noted her various aches and pains didn't quite hurt as much as they should have… which she attributed to the warmth she felt from Mackey's comforting touch.
Mackey couldn't begin to form the words to express the emotions his body was experiencing, so he chose to simply hold Nene close to his chest, letting his heartbeat speak for his mind.
They continued to hold each other as Sylia started to drive the mobile pit through the streets of MegaTokyo. The two tired teenagers communicated wordlessly to each other through gentle squeezing of hands and reassuring hugs all the way back to the Lady 633 building.
To be continued…