Author's notes:

Before starting this chapter, I would like to thank Cylon One for being the first (as so far, the only one) to review this story of mine. Domo arigato gozaimasu, thank you very much!

However, since you know more about Bubblegum Crisis than you do of Elfin Lied, I would like to warn you ahead that the first chapters of this story of mine will focus on introducing Nana into Bubblegum Crisis reality, and during the first four chapters, most characters from Bubblegum Crisis will appear somewhat sparsely. Knight Sabers will come into action around chapter five, but once it happens, they will play a major (and in some cases – main) part throughout the rest of this story. I can only hope that you will be able bear with this story of mine until your favorite characters will make an appearance, and on my part, I will try to update this story of mine as quickly as possible.

Escapee

At the level 66 of GENOM Tower, two men entered the office of Director Kakuzawa, the man in charge of Project V. Though both were nervous, and not without a reason, both were hiding it well.

For half a minute or so after entering, both just stood before Director Kakuzawa in uneasy silence, until one of them, brown-haired with barely noticeable stubble, spoke:

"Father, I'm sorry…"

"You are sorry? What makes you think I care about your pathetic excuses?" Though Director Kakuzawa didn't raise his voice, it was noticeably seething with anger, "I want explanations of what has happened there!"

"Data loss makes it impossible to determine for sure," the brown-haired man replied, "But we believe that the recent events weren't a normal case of a boomer going rogue. It appears that some powerful virus was launched into the Research Laboratory 3's network, which coupled with some kind of ECM, temporary broke OMS control over Number 1."

"When we realized that," the other man said; this one had black hair and was wearing glasses, "I figured out that sending a direct signal from OMS would likely bring Number 1 back under our control, which was why I took the responsibility for authorizing the use of a Fusion Boomer for stopping Number 1…"

"While my worthless son was doing nothing, naturally," Director Kakuzawa commented off-handedly, and the mentioned person had to try his best not to show his displeasure; naturally, he didn't like how quick his father has forgotten the fact that it was him who was working tirelessly on Project V, while his colleague was babysitting Number 7.

"However," Director Kakuzawa continued, with ire suddenly redirected at the black-haired man, "I am highly disappointed at your allowing Number 7 to escape, especially considering that it was under your supervision."

"I assumed that responsibility for Number 7 was taken from me when you ordered its termination," the black-haired man replied calmly, "And in addition to that, Number 7's escape was never reported; we discovered that Number 7 went missing only after restraining Number 1, and by that time, it was long gone."

"You should have checked it earlier!" Director Kakuzawa didn't bother to keep anger from his voice.

"But even so, I don't see why the escape of Number 7, a boomer that was to be terminated anyway is such a big problem…" the black-haired man commented, but it served only to make Director Kakuzawa angrier.

"You fool! We can't risk anyone getting their hands on Vector System! We are still only on the testing stage, but Vector System can potentially be used for making an ultimate weapon. And it should be in our hands, not anyone else's! Get out, both of you! Incompetents!"

Both men were quick to retreat to the door, but while the brown-haired man didn't hesitate to leave the room, his black-haired colleague lingered long enough to overhear Director Kakuzawa shouting into the cell phone:

"Prepare BU-33-CX2 and four BU-55C at once! No, you CAN'T ask, just do what you are told to! I take the full responsibility for this."

"BU-33-CX2, huh?"

Nana slowly walked down the narrow street, notably darker then the ones she found herself at after leaving the laboratory. When she first found herself on laboratory's roof, a good part of this place called "MegaTokyo" was opened before her eyes, but as she descended down into the city, her admiration quickly changed into confusion as she realized that she was hopelessly lost. And what were all those places Papa was talking about?

Descending from the laboratory's roof and then putting as much distance as possible between herself and her former home turned out to be easy enough: she merely calculated the distance to the nearest building and pushed off the laboratory's roof with her Vectors, making a seemingly impossible jump. Though Nana remembered that she had to keep her abilities in secret, she figured that getting away from people who would recognize her at sight was definitely a priority, and she quickly achieved this goal by jumping from one building's roof to another.

Once she put was she deemed to be safe distance between herself and laboratory, Nana simply called an elevator to come down from the building's roof and into the city's streets. But once there, she was immediately lost among towering skyscrapers and seemingly endless streets. Now when evening has already became night, the streets of MegaTokyo were mostly deserted, except for cars that rushed through them with some regularity, and despite being surrounded with activity, Nana suddenly couldn't help feeling lonelier then ever. Oh, how much she wished Papa was here with her…

As Nana was slowly making her way in no particular direction, she kept looking around, trying to find at least something familiar in this alien world, but in vain: with very little information about the world imprinted in her mind, and her own experiences limited to the laboratory's room, Nana was in complete loss about what to do now.

At first, she didn't notice as her surroundings were slowly changing, but then the changes became obvious even to her: the buildings were getting lower and darker, some even with visible signs of damage about them, the streets – narrower and poorly lit, many lacking definite sidewalks. Of course, Nana wasn't entirely sure about their purpose, but as cars didn't seem to go to them, she quickly figured that walking on them was a lot safer. But then again, Nana realized that it has been a while since she last saw a car: this area of the city appeared to be notably more deserted then the one where the laboratory was located…

But unbeknown to Nana, she was neither as safe, nor as alone as it seemed to be, for somebody has already taken a keen interest in finding her…

A woman stood at one of the buildings' flat roof, seemingly enjoying the view, which would have seem rather unusual to a possible observer, but wouldn't raise a particular suspicion either. Dressed in orange overall, complete with a cap of the same color, she looked like some low-level employee, perhaps a janitor or a delivery person. The woman was, however, much more then that: and even as her eyes seemed to scan the scenery before her, her vision was covered by a dozen shifting mini-screens, which displayed different parts of MegaTokyo on a different scales. The abbreviated version of infamous Black Box, which the woman possessed, took GENOM quite a lot effort and money spent on briberies to get, but now it was paying off, as the woman's ability to view MegaTokyo from orbital satellites allowed her to locate her target with relative ease.

'The target is located, transferring its position data to all units. All units, proceed with eliminating the target.'

Completely unaware of this, Nana continued through the labyrinth of dark streets; she heard distant sounds of some kind, and having nothing better to do, decided to head in their direction. Eventually, she came to a small square, notable for a neon sign that hang over the entrance to the building in front of Nana.

"Hot Legs" Nana read aloud, slightly tilting her head to the side in confusion; while she knew what each of these words meant, the word combination didn't make much sense to her. But the sounds, which Nana figured to be some strange kind of speech, were definitely coming from the inside…

(Did you know?) Visualizing illusions

Nana considered going inside, but quickly decided against this idea. There were definitely humans inside, and while Nana was dying to have someone to talk to, she was rather sheepish about facing humans at the same time. What should she say? How should she act? Nana just didn't know.

(Did you dream?) Were my way of life

"Besides", Nana reasoned, "Considering that I can hear everything from the outside, how loud would these sounds be if I was inside?" She shuddered to think of it.

(Did you lie?) The howling wind strips them all away (no, no, no, my heart).

Nana's ears could indeed pick up every word, and although their meaning was for the most part lost for the girl, she found herself drawn into this strange kind of speech…

Big city, standing here we're Heart to heart,

Children lost, seeking love out in the dark.

Big city, Day by day

Will you ever ease the pain

Tears won't take away?

Tonight… Hurricane!

I want to… Hurricane!

Spend this lonely night loving you (loving you).

Tonight… Hurricane!

Touch me… Hurricane!

Show me your love with TOUCH!

Burning touch.

'The target is sighted, proceeding with eliminating it.'

Nana turned to the sudden ripping sounds just in time to see a man who approached her getting torn into shreds, as a much larger metallic-blue body unpacked itself from its human disguise, revealing its owner as a BU-55C Combat Boomer. As Nana was starring at the painfully familiar figure in astonishment, the boomer's torso plates slid aside, revealing a dozen of white slots beneath. And the next moment streams of fire poured from them onto Nana…