P. Kristen Enos's Projects & Furia Press

The Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 Continuation Fanfic Series

by P. Kristen Enos

SPOILERS WARNING!!!
Most of these stories take place AFTER the TV Series! So DON’T blame me if I ruin the ending for you because you read these stories first!
Lesbian/Yuri/Shoujo Ai Warning! (Non-explicit — at least in the “PG13″/”R” sort of way.) Just not written for children because they probably wouldn’t get half of it. All rights belong to JVC/AIC, ADV Films and the other creative powers that be. I just want credit for writing the story.

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Chapter 21: Hidden Agendas

One would never have guessed that there was a moment of awkwardness just seconds before by the way Sylia smoothly took command of the conversation. Of course, everyone else was blushing furiously, but that was beside the point.

To ensure that everyone understood each of the others’ connection to the situation, Sylia introduced each person to the group. In addition to his current role, Daley had been a member of the A.D. Police and an acquaintance of the Knight Sabers during the Boomer Revolution. Linna and Nene were members of the second Knight Sabers team, who had helped to bring down Galatea in the end. And Reika was Sylia’s girlfriend at the time of the formation of the first Knight Sabers team. Various shocked reactions were evident, but no one made any comments.

It was noticeable that Sylia never explained the “drunk make-out session” remark, but Nene and Daley weren’t about to point that out, much to Linna’s relief.

“Reika,” Sylia said as the others settled themselves for the discussion ahead, “I’d appreciate it if you’d stay for a bit. I think you have some key information which may prove critical to this case.”

The other woman looked clearly reluctant as she glanced at her watch. “I have to leave shortly to pick up someone at the airport. I’ve only just returned to Japan, and I came directly here to see my sister. But I can spare a few minutes.” She then looked at the extremely quiet and watchful Linna and said, “Irene asked me to come see if you were all right. She was worried about you.”

Linna looked startled and answered, “I’m fine, Reika. Honest. But why is Irene in the hospital, too?”

Cued by a look from Sylia, Daley told the group everything he knew about the slaughter, including the new testimonial Irene had provided. “Ms. Chang thinks her sister may have been a ‘statement’ of sorts to their family’s security business, but it still leaves a mystery of why the slaughter even began. But I am beginning to think that your survival, Linna, may be the biggest anomaly about this whole case. Everyone else was killed, or knocked out as in the case of Irene, but you were left untouched.”

“I think passing out was what really saved her life,” Sylia mused out loud. “A potential glitch in the programming of a killing machine as it were.”

“So you think boomers were involved in the crime?” Linna asked, “I mean, that was the worst white noise reaction I ever had.”

Sylia nodded. “Nene and Mackey were over for dinner last night. We felt it too, but only to the degree of a momentary intense spasm of pain, which is new because we never felt each other’s white noise attacks before. What was also different this time was that Mackey actually sensed the white noise too. As we speak, Nigel is scanning his core for any traces or patterns we might be able to isolate and study.”

“Do you think Priss would have felt it?” Linna asked. “Even all the way in Amsterdam – if they’re still there?”

“I sent her an email asking if she noticed anything weird,” Nene said. “I also copied Leon just in case. But I know neither one of them checks their messages regularly. It could be another week or two before we get a response from either of them.”

“Excuse me, but what is ‘white noise’?” Reika asked, clearly confused, though knowing it was somehow boomer related.

Sylia paused for a moment to choose her words carefully. “At the height of the Galatea crisis, the four of us found that we were mentally linked due to a by-product of the hardsuit technology, and probably triggered by Galatea’s emergence. It wasn’t until after the crisis that we found out we had developed an increased sensitivity to boomers whose cores were of the Post Revolution generations. That just being in their presence could cause extreme migraines and other ‘mental’ backlashes. Nigel and I submitted a ‘fixed’ design to Genom, who implemented it on all new boomers as well as upgraded the older models thinking they were doing it for energy-efficiency. Unfortunately, there are still some boomers out there who haven’t been upgraded to ‘white noise free’ cores. And it seems these new boomers may have the same white noise flaw, one that Genom wouldn’t have known existed much less how to correct it.”

“Ah. I see why you want me to stay for this conversation,” Reika surmised.

“So why do we think there are boomers connected to this crime?” Linna asked, still struggling to put together her own pieces. “I mean, apart from my passing out and all.”

“Was one of these four women who came up to you an extremely tall, Caucasian woman with long red hair?” Reika asked her.

“Yes, I think so,” she answered.

“Then it sounds like Sylvie, all right,” Reika commented. Then she took a breath and began her description of the boomer demonstration she had gone to a couple of weeks ago.

The news of the human looking boomers obviously shocked everyone, except Sylia, of course.

Daley scowled and commented, “If we went with the assumption that there were assassin boomers involved, then that would explain the precision marksmanship of those shots.”

Sylia nodded. “And looking as human as they do, it would make sense that they could walk out without anyone suspecting them. Or be agile enough to slip out of a side exit or window without a trace.”

“So you think this whole thing could have been some sort of product demonstration?” Daley asked, clearly disgusted by the concept.

Sylia shrugged in a way that showed she was supporting the idea more than negating it. “Security boomers have a defensive programming base. They do not attack unless they see or detect a hostile entity. Combat boomers are programmed with an offensive agenda, but again with a limited target list, otherwise they would attack any living thing, which would negate the possibility of their owners and mechanical staff to maintain them. Let’s say that these Sylvie-bots were enhanced with a new selective offensive program that had defined limitations. For this instance, they are programmed to kill all individuals within the Sports Complex and Shopping Center, in addition to special target instructions for Irene. It could stand to reason that once Linna had passed out, she was then registered as a neutralized or killed target, and therefore they left her alone.”

Linna shuddered at the thought but kept quiet.

“It sounds very plausible,” Daley muttered. “But I have absolutely no proof whatsoever to go knocking on Genom’s door to start an investigation.”

“That may be so. But think of it this way, Daley,” Sylia pointed out, “If it hadn’t been for Linna passing out from the white noise, you would not have had conclusive proof that boomer technology was involved. The trick now is just finding evidence that can stand up in court. Otherwise, this very well could have ended up as an unsolved crime.”

“True,” he said as he scanned his pad. Then he paused and pressed his glasses back a bit before regarding Reika curiously. “Ms. Chang, why didn’t you say anything about the boomer demo earlier?”

She stared at him coolly for a moment and then said, “I was one of several people at that demonstration. And there was nothing that I did or noticed which should have indicated to me that I or my family would be a special target for such a product demonstration. Nor did I have reason to suspect boomers were involved until Linna’s involvement was clarified.”

A knock came from the door, interrupting the discussion. Sylia opened it to let in Kou, who had come to remind his mistress that it was time to leave.

Reika said her goodbyes to the people she had just met, exchanged deep bows with Sylia, but then paused and regarded Linna for a moment. “Irene will probably be staying at our family compound for the next few days.” She produced a business card from her pocket. “This is our private number. Please give her a call when you feel up to it.”

Linna nodded and carefully took the card.

They exchanged a wordless look and then gave each other a slight bow before Reika finally turned to leave.

“So what do we do now?” Nene asked, once the woman and her bodyguard had left. “It’s not as if we can wander over to Genom and start looking for four boomers who look like women.”

Sylia tilted her head as she thought over an idea. “If my theory proves true, we may not have to do anything but wait for Genom to make the move.”

“What happens when they do?” Daley asked. “You’ll bring out the hardsuits? Would you even have them ready in time?”

The other two women looked noticeably intrigued as they awaited her answer.

Sylia merely smirked and said, “That is an option that can be explored.” She looked at Linna and asked, “Do you mind staying in the hospital for another night or two?”

Linna grinned and said, “Only if we can make more hospital staff squirm.”

“I’ll be here to tuck you in every night, darling,” Sylia said with a smirk and a wink.

Nene and Daley both blushed but kept quiet.

Linna glanced at the business card she held with its elegant script and faint scent of Reika’s perfume. She quietly beamed as something inside her said that things were finally going her way.

— End Chapter 21 —

Chapter 22: Opportunity For Improvement

“ – And we will certainly keep you viewers posted of any new developments on this case!” the newscaster promised earnestly into the TV camera. “Now, for the weather – .“

Quincy clicked the off button on the remote control and tossed it onto his desk. He leaned back in his chair with a satisfied look.

“I haven’t seen such hungry news coverage since the revolution,” he mused. “The lack of facts is obviously driving the press and public crazy.”

“That part of the plan went perfectly,” Madison agreed. She had come into his office just in time to see this latest news blurb. Now that the TV was off, she took the opportunity to tell him the latest news. “I just spoke with Dr. Yamada. He asked for the rest of the week off, saying his fiancée is in the hospital. Just as we expected he would.”

“Did he say why she was in the hospital?”

“No. I think Dr. Yamada received the message loud and clear.”

“Well, we still have some time to test him out. Since we conducted the trial without his knowledge, he may feel a little secure in his status as an innocent party. He may change his mind in the next few days about saying anything to the police so continue to keep an eye on him,” Quincy mused. “However, I do believe he will keep quiet in the end. He knows Irene wouldn’t be shot with just a tranquilizer dart the next time. And I would hate to kill him. After all, he did provide our company with valuable years of service.”

“What about our client? Have you talked to him yet?”

“He’s very pleased with the results. Especially if we can maintain the public status as an unsolved crime. And thanks to the police department’s own secrecy, our client doesn’t yet know about our loose end. I’m trying to figure out how to deal with that once the news becomes public. Have the police uncovered anything else?”

Madigan shook her head as she scanned her data pad. “Not in their internal communications. They’re doing the standard forensics research but we know they won’t uncover anything that will lead to anything, much less back to us. Detective Wong hasn’t yet filed a report but our sources confirmed that he went to the hospital this morning to interview Ms. Chen. If she points him in the path of trying to hunt down our girls, should we terminate her or him?”

Quincy shook his head. “Spare Ms. Chen for now; she’s too valuable as our leverage to keeping Dr. Yamada quiet. It was just bad timing that she happened to be down in the plaza area instead of inside of the gym as planned. However, it’s not as if our girls have names and addresses they can be traced to. Just instruct the lab to change their appearances as soon as they’ve finished downloading all of the data from the trial. That should remove any risk of Ms. Chen being able to identify them. And keep on eye on Detective Wong. I’d be curious to see what he uncovers. Now, what about our loose end? Have you figured out who she is?”

“Yes, her file has been transferred to your directory.”

Quincy pulled up the file on his terminal to see the picture and data flash on his screen. “She’s cute. Linna Yamazaki, hmm?”

“She works as an O.L. for Hugh Geit. She’s also a member of the gym, which is obviously why she was there that night. And she is apparently a friend of Ms. Chen, given that they were talking to each other at the time of the trial’s start. Her official records indicate that she’s unmarried, lives by herself, and her family is in the country. However, the report submitted by Dr. Sonoda, the physician who examined her this morning, indicated a female significant other. There’s nothing else noteworthy about her.”

“What’s Dr. Yuri’s explanation for why she’s still alive?” Quincy asked as he skimmed the data.

“Sylvie’s is the only file they’ve been able to analyze so far. But it seems that as soon as Ms. Yamazaki passed out, Sylvie registered her as deceased and removed her from her target list. It would stand to reason that the other girls had a similar response. Sylvie’s audio and video recorders didn’t pick up anything unusual in the environment which would have caused such a reaction in the woman. And in pulling Ms. Yamazaki’s medical files, it seems she’s had a history of black outs and migraines for the past couple of years. However, she never went and received medical treatment for them so her records up until today were clean. We only know about her previous black-outs because she admitted them to Dr. Sonoda, who included the information in her medical report.”

“Has Ms. Yamazaki check out of the hospital yet?”

“No, our contact indicated that she’s staying there for at least one more night for observation.”

Quincy finished reading the file and looked at his assistant. “What are the ramifications and risks if we allow her to live?”

Madigan mulled that over for a bit and then answered, “She could potentially reinforce Ms. Chen’s assessment that our girls were involved since the recordings did show that she saw them before passing out. This could also compromise our client’s wishes about making this trial as simple as possible since two living witnesses will definitely make it harder for government officials to abandon such a case. Otherwise, she’s of no risk to us.”

“And if she was terminated?”

“Depending on how it was done. If we chose the most discreet method possible, which could be helped by her personal medical condition, the police may not consider her part of the crime and therefore not investigate her further. And then our other risks are minimized all the way around, even with a surviving significant other.”

Quincy leaned back in his chair and stared out of the window at the view of Tokyo Bay. He was quiet for a moment and then said, “Notify Dr. Yuri immediately that I have a special trial I want to set up for Sylvie tonight. Just do some basic cosmetic changes in her, like her hair color or something. But I want Sylvie to take a more hands on approach to this one so I can report a positive result to our client about the whole matter, as well as impress him even further.”

“Yes, sir.”

— End Chapter 22 —

Chapter 23: Critical Seconds

“Come on, Dales! Can’t you give me one teeny little hint?!” Yuuji’s voice pleaded from the cell phone.

“You’re crossing the line, Buddy!” Daley stated jokingly, pointing out their mutual agreement to keep their professional lives separate. The detective allowed himself a smile. Yuuji could be extremely cute when his curiosity got the better of him. “You’re going to have to wait for the official press statement, just like every other good reporter.”

He snorted in response. “Dales, you can’t blame me for trying. After all, this is the biggest story since the Boomer Revolution!”

Daley was glad this wasn’t a face to face conversation, as otherwise his partner would have immediately noticed his reflexive wince at the reference. Indulging in a yawn, he looked up at the brightly lit night sky and leaned against the back of the large vehicle parked in the alley way in the hospital complex.

“Look, anything I give you now would be pure conjecture, Yuuji,” Daley tried to explain. “Tabloid stuff. Now, you wouldn’t want your pressman’s honor tainted by such a flimsy story.”

“A story is as good as its source so that argument won’t work with me,” Yuuji countered. “Besides, you wouldn’t go on an overnight stakeout over conjecture. You value your sleep too much for that.”

Before Daley could make an indignant retort, the mobile pit’s side door flew open and Mackey stuck his head out.

“We’ve got a positive reading,” the anxious young ‘man’ reported.

“Got to go, Sweets! Sleep tight!” Daley blurted before disconnecting the call, hitting the preprogrammed alert signal on his phone and then putting it away.

The detective rushed inside the mini-command center to find Nigel Kirkland sitting at the terminal station, his eyes darting over the monitor screens as he tried different cameras in the hospital’s security system in an attempt to find their target. His ragged mechanics jumper and long brown pony-tail easily camouflaged the technical brilliance of the man who provided critical professional and personal support to Sylia for her Knight Sabers operations.

“The beacons we placed by the emergency room entrance went off, registering only a single signal,” the technician explained. “Unfortunately, it was right at the time when a couple of ambulances arrived with several car accident victims so there’s a lot of activity right now.”

Daley squinted through his glasses at the flash of images. “So that means a single person can easily get lost in the shuffle.”

“We’ll find her,” Nigel answered grimly, his fingers flying across the keyboard with surprising efficiency for a man who had been dead asleep on the floor moments before.

“I already called Linna so she’s getting dressed right now,” Mackey announced. “Sylia and Nene should be here any minute.”

“Got her!” Nigel exclaimed triumphantly. “I’m firing up the transmission jammers in the courtyard now.”

The screen showed the view of an elevator camera that was focused on a lone woman dressed in a plain shirt and pants. It was clear her stance was very formal and straight-backed, and her attention remained focused ahead, reinforcing their perception that she may not be human. She had long blonde hair that was tied back in a braid.

“Come on, let’s get ready,” Daley said to Mackey as he tossed his jacket aside and pulled on his bulletproof vest as a precaution. He then grabbed his ready sniper’s rifle with the infrared site and silencer.

The two of them jumped out of the van and ran to the edge of the alley, which opened up to the large garden courtyard that served as the heart of the hospital complex.

A cluster of five large buildings surrounding a main courtyard in a U-shaped layout made up the complex. The single building which was at the hub of the ‘U’ served as the hospital’s main entrance during the day time. The emergency entrance was at the back of one of the side buildings, leaving the courtyard completely empty and quiet at 2 a.m., which was perfect for what needed to happen.

Daley used his rifle site to look for Linna’s hospital room, which was in the front of the fourth floor of the building across from them. As soon as he found it, she had turned off her lights and pulled open the drape. He could see her open the window enough to sit on the ledge as she waited for her expected visitor. The young woman was clearly positioned to jump to the nearby drainpipe as her attention was focused on the door of her room.

Daley felt himself hold his breath as they waited for those crucial seconds. Next to him, he could feel a similar tension from Mackey, as if the boomer was also holding his breath.

Just then, everything seemed to be a blur of motion.

Linna suddenly turned, jumping for the drainpipe and beginning her sliding descent downwards towards the ground. She had just started her slide when her would-be assassin suddenly appeared at the window to follow in pursuit. For a natural athlete, Linna’s actions were unusually forced and sloppy, an indication that she was also fighting the affects of white noise.

Sylvie lunged for the drainage pipe as well, her stance and actions showing a different intent than sliding down it. She snagged the pipe and, with her feet planted against the wall, wrenched the lifeline from its braces, a metal squeal echoing into the night.

“SHIT!!!” Daley blurted as he watched Linna, Sylvie and the twisted pipe drop to the ground.

In a frantic attempt to brace her almost three-story fall with her arms, Linna twisted and hit the grass-covered ground sideways. She moved feebly for a bit but then became still.

Sylvie twisted and landed on her feet with the dexterity and grace of a cat, although she obviously made a noticeable dent in the ground with a matching ‘thud’ sound. The long, broken drainpipe was still firmly in her grip. She then stood over her target and stared down in a momentary pause, as if determining what her next action would be.

Daley then reacted on instinct, knowing that his actions were probably his death sentence. He fired at the back of Sylvie’s head, causing her to lurch forward a bit before she immediately regained her footing and spun around in his direction. He knew the bullets wouldn’t damage her, much less kill her, but he only needed to buy time by focusing her attention on him rather than the fallen Linna.

And it worked, now that Sylvie now calmly started to walk toward him while wielding the broken pipe menacingly.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mackey run across the courtyard in a mad sprint that hopefully kept him out of Sylvie’s focus yet was direct enough to get to Linna as soon as possible.

Daley also noticed that some of the hospital rooms were starting to light up because people heard the commotion caused by Sylvie’s destruction of the drainage pipe. Then, as if on cue, the courtyard lights were cut, plunging the area into deep darkness so that a casual observer wouldn’t be able to easily see what was going on. Daley wondered if this was Nigel’s doing.

Meanwhile, Sylvie continued to walk toward him.

Daley fired another shot, this time at her foot, which caused her to trip and stumble onto the grass.

She easily got back to her feet to continue closing the hundred yards which separated them.

Daley felt his body soak in sweat as his heart pounded wildly as he fired another shot to make her fall.

‘Come on! Where are they?!’ he thought frantically.

Sylvie stood again, but paused as a distracted expression crossed her face. She then looked up at the night sky, apparently forgetting the detective for a moment.

As if on cue, the familiar silhouettes of two hardsuits suddenly descended from the night sky.

— End Chapter 23 —

— End Part 2: “Hunters” —