Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three
Chapter 34
"Welcome to Megatokyo Tonight!"
"I'm Ayeka Misaki," the pretty purple-ish haired woman smiled.
"I'm Ryoko Hakubi! Yo!" the silver grey haired woman waved.
Ayeka gave the other woman a look, then continued, "There's are our top stories."
Images appeared of ADP officers rounding up protesters. The images were cropped and edited to make the crowd look bigger.
"A peaceful protest at GENOM's Boomer development labs was broken up by ADP, including injuring several protesters," Ryoko said seriously.
"The protesters were speaking out over Boomers displacing service workers and other jobs," Ayeka added as the shot changed to show the various signs.
(They deliberately skipped over the signs for the 'Boomer Master Race' guy. No reason to give the loonies any air time.)
"Several injured parties were treated at a nearby hospital," Ryoko added seriously, the screen showing stock footage of a local medical facility.
(The 'injuries' had been at worst bruises and scrapes, but police regulations required they be checked out. And, of course, mentioning it made for good drama.)
"Representatives of Genom had no comment," Ayeka said evently.
"No comment!" the footage of the plant manager said as he quickly pushed by the shouting news reporters.
"Requests for a statement from the ADP were also declined," Ayeka finished.
"In related news, the Boomer recall that Genom is proposing is meeting stiff resistance from customers," Ryouko noted. "Let's go to our business analyst."
Kiyone Makibi nodded briskly, the black haired woman sitting at a seperate desk. "Kiyone Makibi, business news," she introduced herself.
The GENOM logo appeared behind her, and stock footage of Boomer assembly lines were run. Skeletons, internal mechanisms, the synthetic muscles then finally skin and human features like hair and so on were applied...
"There is a growing pushback over the GENOM plan to recall supposedly 'defective' Boomers and replace them with new models," Kiyone reported. "Business sources question the necessisty of the replacement."
"WHY recall the Boomers? What's wrong with them?" the businesswoman asked, the name 'Naomi Arsada' beneath her image. "And why won't GENOM disclose to us what is supposedly wrong with them?"
Another business man appeared, dressed in a rumpled suit as he complained, "We'll have major downtime while the exchange is going on. Could be days or even weeks! And who pays for THAT, huh? Me!"
"And corporate rivals of GENOM and Boomer experts are also asking what, exactly, the defect is," Kyone added.
"I assure the public that our Maid-bot is totally safe," one rep cheerfully noted, "you can buy them with confidence."
(Of course no one was bringing up how most companies making Boomer knockoffs had swiped GENOM designs. Especially Gulf and Bradley. The only reason GENOM hadn't sued everyone was that Dr Stingray wanted Boomers to spread globally...)
"Back to the News," Kiyone added brightly.
"Thank you, Kiyone," Ayeka nodded.
"Next, in Entertainment News, Sony Universal are also facing troubles due to the Boomer recall," Ryouko noted.
"Look, I KNOW sexaroid porn isn't really considered high art," the slim, elegant man in a business suit noted, "but this impacts us greatly."
"... how so?" the hapless reporter had to ask.
"You see, we need to customize the sexaroids to our audience's tastes," he explained mildly. "If we're doing a 'teacher and student; scenario that day, we can't use the same Sexaroid as the 'Gyaru Girls' series, as an example."
"Oh," the reporter said weakly.
"And of course, the busty loli model would not work at all," he continued. "Why, when we did Mimi does Megatokyo, we wore out three..."
"ANYWAY," Ryouko said as they swiftly cut back to the main studio. "That was certainly... educational," she sighed.
Ayeka looked pale, "Indeed."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"What the fuck?" Priss blurted as they saw the evening news.
"Ditto," Linna agreed. "How did that air, considering how blatantly that is biased?" she asked the others, bemusedly.
Sylia Stingray sighed, "The owner of the station is the brother-in-law of one of the executives I fired with cause."
"Still! How can they get away with that?" Priss demanded.
"They didn't actually lie or say any falsehoods," Reika Chang noted dryly.
"But...," Linna started.
"Yes, Sylia could probably file a complaint, and MAYBE in six months to a year they'd get a slap on the wrist fine," Reika shrugged. "Not much point."
"That sucks," Priss scowled.
"Agreed, and I think Nene is going to look into it," Sylia added. "Anyway... I'll need you two again, today."
"You've got a off-site meet again?" Priss checked.
"Yes, the Japoanese head of Gulf and Bradly," Sylia said calmly.
"Didn't Nene say they hacked us and stole your father's designs?" Linna blinked.
"Why talk to them?" Priss agreed.
"Because the designs are now seriously vulnerable to hacking," Sylia pointed, "and I can't in good conscience ignore that."
"You're a better person than I," Reika noted, "I'd let them suffer."
"That, and I want to keep any Gulf and Bradly models from being used to kill me," Sylia pointed out.
"Okay, point," Reika conceded.
"Okay, standard op?" Priss asked. "We guard you, and Nene and Reika are on call if things get hairy?" she checked.
"Pretty much," Sylia agreed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Nene Romanova was monitoring the team as they arrived at Gulf and Bradley's Japanese Headquarters. Plus she was hacked into their mainframe, just in case something unexpected happened. She didn't THINK they were stupid enough to try to kill Sylia on their property, but...
"We're here. Stepping out now," Linna murmured into her concealed radio.
Acessing the internal cameras, Nene followed them in. A attractive, brown haired woman was waiting in the lobby, escorted by a Boomer aide and a human secretary. She looked a bit nervous, but not too much.
"President Stingray," the woman smiled, "I'm Dustine McCormick, head of Gulf and Bradly, Japan. Pleased to meet you."
"A pleasure," Sylia nodded. "My aides, Priss and Linna."
"Yo," Priss waved casually as Linna nodded.
"Mio and Keiko," Dustine introdused the two with her. She added, "Please, follow me to our main meeting room."
Nene tracked them via the building's internal security, noting that their system had a LOT of holes. Of course, that also meant whomever was after Sylia could be using those gaps too.
"Thank you for agreeing to see me," Sylia said after they were seated.
"I was surprised you requested a meeting, considering everything," Dustine admitted.
'Like the probable corporate espionage, spying and maybe murder,' Nene thought, listening.
Sylia extracted a zip drive and set it on the table, "These are plans relating to a severe design flaw in Boomers, which are also in your models."
"What?" Mio blurted.
"The apparently random Boomer attacks," Dustine realized. "You too?"
'Don't tell her. Don't,' Nene thought.
"They've been trying to kill me, for several months," Sylia said bluntly.
'Ugh,' Nene sighed.
Dustine looked shocked. "How did you keep that out of the news?" she wondered aloud.
"Money. And our private cops," Sylia shrugged. She continued, "In the original Boomer design, and carried over through later versions, there is a internal unsecured antenna. It was intended for updates and continuous data feeds."
"Because there were concerns the Boomers on board computers weren't good enough," Dustine noted.
"Exactly. But they proved unnecessary, and we forgot about them," Sylia said.
"Until this happened," Dustine nodded thoughtfully. "Is that why you're so jumpy with out Boomers, too?" she asked.
'I guess Linna and Priss look ready to shoot her Boomer aide,' Nene mused.
"Hmm," Sylia nodded.
To be continued...
Notes: YES, the news anchors are all characters from Tenchi Muyo. Did you know that originally, the Tenchi characters were going to debut in Bubblegum Crisis? The BGC characters were going to go to a hot spring and run into them.
Dustine McCormick is a character of my friend DarkRanger12, though I'm MOSTLY just grabbing the name. So far, anyway.