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.

—

Part 5: Blood Trails

Chapter 55: Dangerous Toys

The shrill beep of the alarm pierced the otherwise peaceful atmosphere of the Silky Doll building, causing Sylia to sit bolt upright in bed. Of course, that action also caused her to wince in pain.

Nigel also sat upright, first focusing on the alarm and then on his lover’s pained grimace.

“That’s the boomer sensor alarm!” Sylia hissed between gritted teeth, trying to bring their focus back to the more important matter at hand. “It would only go off if a boomer tried to come in the building!”

“Or leave.”

They looked at each other as they suddenly had the same thought. Then there was a flurry of tossed bedsheets and blankets as Sylia grabbed her robe and Nigel pulled on his boxer shorts and t-shirt.

“Mistress Sylia?! Master Nigel?” an alarmed Henderson questioned when he ran into them in the hallway.

“Where’s Sylvie?!” she demanded.

The butler looked bewildered and then horrified at the obvious reasoning behind the question. “I-I haven’t seen her in half an hour or so. She was going to take some cookies to Priss.”

“She never came by!” Priss blurted as she ran up to them.

After a brief exchange of horrified looks, the four of them then rushed to the freight elevator, which would be the most direct route from the upper floors down to the pit.

“They’re completely damaged,” Nigel yelled up to the command booth upon finishing his brief inspection of the hardsuit frames and inner-metal pumps. “There’s no way to do a quick fix on these!”

Sylia registered his words with an even darker frown as she frantically typed various commands into the main computer.

“What are you looking for?” an anxious Priss asked over her shoulder. She wanted to do something – anything – but the lack of a suitable outlet was driving her nuts. She did the only thing she could do, which was shove a cookie in her mouth from the tray that had been left behind on the command chair.

“DAMN IT!” Sylia yelled as she smashed her fist into the keyboard, sending plastic pieces flying as some gouged into her hand. Her body trembled with rage. “She wiped out the kill-switch commands!”

“Hey, everyone, what’s going on?” Nene asked as she and Mackey rushed in. “Mackey heard the alarms when we were coming up the block.”

Sylia paced frantically as she ran her hands through her hair, not at all noticing the smear of blood through her strands. “Come on, Sylia, THINK! There’s got to be a rational explanation for this!”

Priss looked at the confused newcomers and answered simply, “Sylvie’s gone and she’s sabotaged the hardsuit equipment as well as wiped out her kill-switch commands from the main computer.”

The horrified and bewildered reactions came as expected, but so did the frantic mental churning for some sort of solution to the problem.

“Do you think she was called back to Genom?” Nene asked anyone who would give her a response.

Sylia shook her head as she juggled the question with her own thought process. “It’s possible but extremely unlikely. We buffered this building from receiving foreign transmissions just as Sylvie couldn’t send signals out. Unless Genom managed to deploy a special frequency that we haven’t been able to dampen, she shouldn’t have heard anything. But that wouldn’t make sense of why she would damage the hardsuits and wipe out the kill-switch commands.

“She had complete freedom within the building. We wouldn’t have noticed her absence by the time she reached Genom, and by then she would have been ‘safe’ from anything we held over her. She didn’t know about the boomer sensors so she never would have known her departure from the building would have been noticed right away. She purposefully took the time to sabotage the suits and the kill-switch commands. The only reason why she would do that would be that she considered them necessary precautions to whatever she was planning. –”

Nene’s eyes suddenly bugged out as she realized where Sylia was headed. “Her direct command mode! Those extra algorithms we just uncovered the other day! Oh my God!”

“Someone speak Japanese!” Priss practically yelled for clarification as Nigel appeared at the doorway as well.

Nene complied but spoke at the speed of a machine firing, “Priss, one of the key parts of Sylvie’s combat programming is that when she is in direct command mode, she had enough intelligence to assess a situation and remove any obstacles that might prevent her from completing her task. She apparently considered the hardsuits and the kill-switch command to be direct threats to be eliminated before she proceeded.”

Priss was trying to process what Nene had just said and clearly started to form an unpleasant picture, “The only direct command left that we know of is her order to assassinate Linna! But, it makes no sense why it would be triggered now after all this time!”

“It would if she suddenly found out where Linna is!” Sylia insisted. Then she stared at Priss and demanded, “Did you call Linna this morning? Sylvie has frequency sensors that could have picked up the signal and traced the call!”

Priss eyes widened in angry disbelief. “That’s fucking nuts! I called Linna like I do every morning! If that made a difference, then why didn’t Sylvie react before?!”

“Because she didn’t have a crush on you before!” Sylia yelled in desperation.

“WHAT?!” a shocked Priss blurted.

“The point is that we have to stop her somehow if she really is after Linna!” Mackey pointed out as he logged into one of the other terminals. “She couldn’t have gotten far if she’s on foot.”

“Don’t count on that,” Nigel grimly pointed out. He had also logged into one of the other terminals and had been checking the various shots from the security cameras. He tapped on the view of the garage. “Priss’s bike is missing.”

“WHAT?!” the singer blurted for the second time in as many minutes. “How the hell does she know how to ride my bike?!”

“She’s programmed to fly a jet fighter! What do you think?!” Sylia angrily pointed out, though it was it clear that her rage was primarly at herself and the situation.

Then she steeled herself and ordered, “Henderson, call Reika and tell her to clear the compound as soon as possible, with evacuation priority on Linna and the children. Nigel and Mackey, try to see if you can capture Sylvie’s signal and pinpoint her location. Her direct command mode also means she’d emit a tracking signal back to Genom. Also keep an eye on Genom’s communications systems and let me know if they pick her up. Priss and Nene, we’ve got a last resort option to stop her down in my private lab. Let’s go!”

“I should be returning by the time we’re ready to deliver the first version models,” Madigan reported to Quincy as they were in his office. She sat in the chair in front of his desk while he leaned against the window with a glass of scotch in his hand. “Dr. Yuri has proven quite capable of running his team with minimal supervision. However, I will continue to call and check on his status.”

Quincy shook his head and said, “Don’t bother. Enjoy your vacation. I’ll handle -“

Suddenly the phone in Quincy’s vest pocket went off, as did Madigan’s, which was on her belt.

The two executives paused and looked at each other. Quincy answered his first and signalled to Madigan to have her call go to voicemail.

“This is Quincy… What?!” the man’s tone immediately turned into pleased surprise. Realizing that Madigan’s curiosity was piqued, he repeated the information for her sake, “You’ve suddenly registered Sylvie’s signal, and she’s still within the city?… But she’s heading west as if she’s in some sort of high speed vehicle?… Dispatch the other girls by helicopter and figure out a rendezvous point. I want her brought back as soon as possible and in one piece! Understood?! I’m heading down to the control room now!”

The President and CEO of Genom Corporation hung up the phone with an immensely pleased smile. “Well? You can go off on your vacation or stick around for a bit to see how this turns out.”

Madigan smiled and stood. “This is one show I wouldn’t want to miss.”

— End Chapter 55 —

Chapter 56: Kamikaze

“I knew you had a secret set of hardsuits stashed somewhere!” Nene exclaimed in relief and excitement once she looked at the display of the four ready suits near the wall.

Sylia broke out into a grim smile as she pressed some buttons on the wall panel. There was a hum and as one, each of the suits bent forward and opened to allow their respective owners to climb in for occupancy.

“They’re actually functional prototypes,” Sylia quickly explained. “After Galatea, I decided to tinker with more design options. I didn’t like how much time and preparation the Galatea versions required so I decided to see if I could make similar versions that were pre-formed like your first set of hardsuits. It’ll be a tight wiggle to get into them, and yes, you’d still be naked, but these could be deployed remotely as well as by yourself. I’m just grateful that I never allowed Sylvie in here or she would have destroyed them as well.”

“So how functional are these?” Priss asked as she started to take off her clothes, dumping them on the nearby examination table.

“They should be one hundred percent but I haven’t run a full diagnostic test on all of them. I didn’t finish them because I eventually decided to take the leap of faith that perhaps the Knight Sabers could finally retire after all. My suit is the only one that I’ve thoroughly checked and know is fine. But since the suits are all custom-fitted neither one of you can wear it.”

As she took off her own clothes, Nene frowned at the way Sylia still pressed her hand against her side. “Sylia, are you going to go out too?”

Sylia flashed a reassuring smile and said, “I couldn’t wiggle into this version in my current condition, much less fight in one.”

“So it’ll be just me and Nene?” Priss muttered as she approached her suit. She suddenly faltered in her step as her eyes widened due to some internal reaction.

Sylia frowned and opened her mouth to speak but then she was cut off by Mackey’s voice over the intercom.

“We’ve found her!” he announced. “She’s still on the main highway within the city. At the speed she’s going and with traffic, we calculated that it’ll be another twenty-five minutes before she gets to Reika’s. If you dispatch within the next five minutes, you’ll stop her in plenty of time. You’ll also be outside of the city limits so you should have free reign to do what you have to.”

“Genom’s also found her too and are tracking her by satellite!” Nigel’s voice added. “I just intercepted a deployment order for Sylvie’s sisters by helicopter!”

“Thanks! And keep us posted of anything new!” Sylia yelled back to the receiving microphones. She then frowned as she mulled the situation. “Damn! That’s four to two odds now! One to one is risky enough. Looks like I’m going to have to join you after all.”

“So then you are going to wear your hardsuit?” Nene nervously asked, even sounding a little hopeful in her voice. She had already started to squeeze into her own combat armor as she got ready.

With a sly smile, she shook her head. “There are other things I can do to help even the odds!” She pushed other codes into the control panel, which caused humming to be heard as the door to one of the adjacent rooms slid open expectantly. “A hardsuit would actually get in the way this time. — Priss, I want you to deploy first. Nene and I will catch up with you.”

A look of hesitancy and fear broke out on the singer’s face, a reaction that even Nene noticed.

“But – “ Priss stared at the hardsuit before her. Her face clearly showed that she was trying to fight down some internal panic growing within her.

Sylia looked at her firmly and said, “You have the best lead right now to stop Sylvie before anyone else arrives. So it’ll still be a one to one fight. Just keep in mind that you’re doing this for Linna! And for Sylvie. Don’t you think she’d want you to stop her if you could? And we’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

“Priss, you can do it!” Nene insisted frantically, realizing her support was needed as well. “Linna and the real Sylvie are counting on you!”

Priss stared at the ready suit before her and swallowed. Then she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and reopened her eyes with a determined expression. Even though she went through the motions of getting into her suit, her face clearly showed the haunted look of a woman facing her own execution.

“Nene, make certain Priss launches fine!” Sylia ordered, as she discarded her robe and walked towards the waiting room. “You’ll have to do it from the launch tube in the pit. When she’s gone, wait for me there. I should only take five minutes!”

Do I fight for control? Or do I just let go and trust my body as I normally do? But isn’t that how I froze the last time?

Priss’s mind frantically raced through its monologue as she felt herself sail through the air. She ran through every conceivable option and didn’t trust the outcomes of any of them. The fight with the construction boomers also replayed in her mind, creating more panic and uncertainty as to how she was to approach this impending battle.

Sylvie said the key was for Priss to remind herself that she was human.

But doesn’t any kind of emotion qualify as being human? Boomers don’t experience panic or fear or doubts. Boomers don’t fight because they’re motivated by the horror of innocent lives being killed, or by the fierce desire to protect a loved one. And boomers don’t function with the constant fear that their own bodies could betray them at any moment. So what the hell was the key to breaking Galatea’s unconscious control?!

But sentient boomers do feel emotion. You know that, Priss. There is no difference so stop trying to fight and just accept who you really are!

Priss’s heart beat so hard that it felt like it was trying to burst not only out of her body but the hardsuit as well.

“Priss, take a deep breath and focus!” Nigel’s voice firmly and calmly coached her through the comm-link. “You need your full concentration to confront Sylvie. Don’t give her an advantage over you!”

“Ri-Right, Nigel,” Priss responded with a deep breath and a swallow as she bounced off another rooftop.

She knew she had to get her act together. Despite what Sylia said, she knew she had no backup this time. It was all or nothing.

Just as that thought settled in her mind, she looked down at the long stretch of countryside before her, critically eyeing the road. Then she saw the familiar figure on the extremely familiar vehicle.

“I see her!” she reported back through the comm-link.

“Go for it!” Nigel said. “Nene and Sylia should be there in three minutes. Genom is also in the air. They should be arriving around the same time!”

“Got it!”

Priss took a final breath and adjusted her thrusters to change her trajectory a bit so she that could line herself up with Sylvie’s travel path.

Wearing a simple dress with the skirt hiked up around her hips in the complete lack of boomer moedsty, Sylvie was hunched over the machine, her white hair flying like a banner in the wind. She glanced back at the figure hovering in the sky behind her, showing that she acknowledged the other’s presence as well, but made no move other than to speed up.

When Sylvie reached a stretch of the hillside road that was finally clear of other vehicles, Priss lunged in for the attack. The Knight Saber dive-bombed with precise accuracy, nailing Sylvie with a tackle. The collision sent the two of them and the motorcycle skidding across the asphalt surface, through the guardrails and down the hill-side into the forest below.

Priss’s arm-lock around Sylvie’s waist gave her a split second advantage in the mad tumble. Before they finished their roll, she pulled her arm back to land a knuckle-bomb enhanced punch, and felt it freeze again.

Taking advantage of the hesitancy, Sylvie slammed her elbow into Priss’s chest, knocking the Knight Saber flying into the nearby tree.

“PRISS! Are you okay?!” Mackey blurted after hearing the sound of the second collision.

Priss scrambled to her feet as she tried to focus through the impact of the hit. “I’m fine! The suit absorbed it but I’m still a bit rattled.” She noticed that her arm was still locked in its attack position.

The Knight Saber then looked up to find Sylvie charging at her. The boomer suffered superficial damage from the crash. Her dress was torn and her artificial skin ripped from the upper right side of her face, revealing the glistening metal skull with the white eye in its socket.

The sight shocked Priss, finally dispelling any lingering doubts in her mind of what Sylvie truly was, the kind that stayed until you saw certain things for yourself. Unfortunately, it was a split second reaction that gave Sylvie the opening she needed.

The boomer fully tackled the Knight Saber, sending them both crashing through the already damaged tree, tumbling into the clearing beyond. Sylvie had one arm locked around Priss’s neck as she rabbit-punched her in the side.

Priss tried to punch back with her free arm and found that it also froze into a neutral and helpless position.

SHIT! she thought frantically as she felt her panic attack come back in full force.

Then she felt herself block everything out. Nigel and Mackey’s frantic words through the comm-link, the rattling pounding that her hardsuit and body were taking, and the sheer helplessness of her situation. She wanted to shut down and run away — just like before.

But then a voice made its way through the chaos. The distinct words that were repeated in a hauntingly familiar voice. Priss couldn’t tell if she actually heard it through her ears or if it was a mental connection of some sort.

It was Sylvie, repeating over and over, “Please kill me, Priss!”

— End Chapter 56 —

Chapter 57: Rock ‘n Roll!

Sylvie’s voice was suddenly gone along with the pounding.

Priss blinked back to reality when she felt the thud of Sylvie’s body collapse on top of hers.

“Sylvie?!” she cried in horror at the unseeing eyes and blank expression. She smacked the metallic cheek and yelled, “Please, answer me!”

“Priss! She can’t hear you!” Sylia said.

Realizing that her voice wasn’t coming from inside her helmet comm-link, Priss looked up to see two figures standing before her.

Nene in her hardsuit stood quietly to the side while an unfamiliar figure captured their attention.

Sylia was almost unrecognizable in her black, military-style jumpsuit with combat boots and gloves. Her gray hair was pinned up under a black baseball cap and her eyes were hidden behind thick black visors. She wore a radio headset with mini-microphone and an armored vest. At her waist was a double holster with a pistol at each hip. A stylized sniper’s rifle with an unusually thick barrel was gripped in her left hand while her right one held a small remote control. The only other thing about Sylia’s attire was a strange metallic collar around her neck, which had small red buttons that glowed, indicating that it was an electronic device of some sort.

All of those details were absorbed by Priss and immediately discarded once she saw that Sylia’s remote was the reason behind the lifeless form in her arms. Priss remembered seeing Sylia tinkering with the gadget when she came to the Silky Doll the day after her return and knew what it signified.

“DAMN YOU!” Priss roared as she lunged, her rage blocking out everything except the need for immediate vengeance. She didn’t even notice that her arms were fully functional again.

In a flash of an eye, Sylia dropped the remote and whipped out a pistol to shoot Priss in the shoulder.

The bullet didn’t scratch the hardsuit but it was enough to knock the enraged Knight Saber back a step and to her senses, which was Sylia’s intent.

“Priss!” Nene cried as she rushed to her friend, who was down on her hands and knees.

“You’ve got company!” Nigel’s voice announced through their various comm-links.

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the trio heard the sound of a helicopter zoom over the hilltop.

“Nene, get into position!” Sylia ordered as she zoomed in on the helicopter with the binocular mode of her visor. “Priss, this is the time we need your rage!”

Priss fought back her turmoil as she tried to focus and get up. She watched Nene rush over and plant herself with her back towards Sylia as the helicopter drew near. She knew she should get ready to fight, but she looked down at the fallen Sylvie and couldn’t bring herself to move away from her.

The aircraft swooped low over the clearing and three figures in blue jumpsuits without parachutes dropped like bombs from the open door. They dropped down at the other edge of the clearing and charged forward, each wielding a machine gun and firing away.

The only person at real risk from the charge of gunfire and boomers was Sylia, who looked incredibly calm as she readied her rifle, aiming over Nene’s slightly crouching form. With precise aim, she fired.

The lead boomer was hit right in the eye, her head and body snapping back from the force. She had only stumbled back a step when the projectile lodged into her eye socket exploded. The force wasn’t enough to do more than warp the opening her cranium, but it was enough to disconnect and rupture the wiring and circuits in her brain cavity. She fell to her knees helplessly as her companion was also hit with a shot to the eye.

“Nene, they’re yours now!” Sylia yelled, giving the youngest Knight Saber the signal to charge. Also seeing that now she had no cover against the barrage of gunfire, she dove to the ground, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in her ribs triggered by the gun recoil. “Priss, that last one’s heading for you! I can’t get a clear shot at her!”

Priss didn’t hear Sylia and she didn’t need to. All she could focus on was this petite woman in a blue jumpsuit suit charging at her with a blazing machine gun. The bullets bounced off her hardsuit but were forceful enough to knock her back off her feet. The last thing she saw before she went down was her attacker running in a direct line towards Sylvie’s fallen form.

“Stay away from her, Bitch!” Priss roared as she scrambled to her feet and lunged, using her thrusters to add impact to her tackle.

Sylia smiled as she saw her friend and teammate unleash her full fury on the combat boomer.

The hits weren’t precise enough for a quick, clean kill – but that wasn’t the point of rage. Priss repeatedly hit and slugged the struggling boomer with such force and repetition that it was clear who the victor would be even if the fight lasted a while.

Nene, meanwhile, had an easy time dispatching one partially blind boomer and then the other crippled one.

Sylia looked up at the helicopter circling overhead and zoomed her visor in on it to see if there were any figures on board. “Nigel!” she yelled into the microphone, “Do you know if there are any people on board the chopper?”

“Negative! It’s on autopilot, being controlled by one of the boomers. Most likely the one Priss is fighting since the other two are down.”

“Good! Take control of it and land it at the edge of the clearing!”

“Roger!”

Sylia looked to see Priss standing victoriously over the twisted form of metal, cloth and artificial skin that had been a top-model combat boomer. Seeing that all of the boomers had been taken care of, Sylia turned off her collar. It was a dampener against white noise since she wouldn’t have been insulated in a hardsuit like the other two. She picked up the fallen remote control and slipped it into her pocket as she got to her feet.

“What do we do now?” Nene asked as she approached her.

Priss also walked towards them, or more precisely, towards Sylvie. Her posture was that of someone whose soul had been ripped from her despite the victory that she had just had.

“Priss! She’s still alive. I only shut her down!” Sylia said reassuringly.

Obviously amazed, Priss whipped her helmeted head towards her. “Then she’s not dead?”

“Not yet! But we need to get her back to the Pit and on life support as soon as possible. Do it now while Nigel and Mackey still have the satellite blackout in effect!” Sylia smiled as she saw Priss immediately scoop up her fallen comrade and proceed to jump away.

“What about us?” Nene asked.

“Do you mind gathering the boomer parts and putting them back in the helicopter? I want to send a special present to Genom,” Sylia said as she wearily pressed her hand against the intense pain at her side. “Meanwhile, I need to take some aspirin and figure out what I have to say.”

“You mean to me?!” a clearly displeased Reika announced as she stepped out of a car that had pulled up to the edge of the clearing. Behind her were two more cars full of her security team.

Sylia peered over the black visors and flashed a weak smile. “Ah, your ears must have been burning!”

Reika dangerously narrowed her eyes at her before giving the order to her team to help with the cleanup.

“ — Anri’s signal just went out,” the nervous technician reported once the reading went flat on the final active boomer. “The chopper’s signal has also been knocked out.”

The room was quiet as twenty people were afraid to breathe wrong given the way their President and CEO stood stone-still and stared at the large black screen before them.

“Madigan,” he finally said through gritted teeth, clearly trying to keep himself calm.

“Sir?”

“I strongly recommend you go on your vacation right now,” he said in a low voice. “There is going to be plenty of work to do when you get back.”

“Yes, sir.”

— End Chapter 57 —