11-25-2009, 12:47 AM
Hey all, back again for a couple of days (until Friday morning, anyway!) The big noise is that I need opinions on a new group name for the Sabers in Bubblegum
Disaster, after they get blamed for trashing Megatokyo in ch6 and pull a Thunderbolts maneuver. I've added the updated EX chapter (as well as heavily
proofread versions of Ch6, you'll be happy to learn) to the BDPreread yahoogroup, and will also append Ch6EX here.
If you haven't read Disaster, it's enough to know that in the last chapter, Priss quit the KS, kicked the imposter Sabers' asses with her
techyno-Venom hardsuit substitute and Leon in a GENOM knockoff motoslave at the bank, and left to go on tour with the band, Sylia and Largo's fight set off
two huge shockwaves that demolished a mile radius around Genom Tower and broke every widow in the city, leaving the Sabers accused of nuclear terrorism, and
Linna learned to fly the Dragonball way out of a deep desire to not go splat after having her hardsuit ripped off her and being trown off the top of GENOM
Tower, pre-pseudonuking. Oh, and Nene's parents are the Mirror CLones of Ranma that ran off at the end of their manga chapter, and have an extradimensional
island where she and Linna usually do their martial arts training; and a coupl of chapters back Linna inadvertently appeared in a close approximation of a
Great Saiyaman outfit when a buma attack got her stuck in gridlock on the highway.
- CD
-------------------------------------------------------------
11_BD_WOASS_Ch6_EX.txt
2009-11-24 - Aperture Science & Lovely Angels scenes
2009-11-22 - added dishes scene, notes
2009-06-23 - added Priss/215 road scene
2008-10-08 - moved last scene of 6c to here to kill the gratuitous cliffhanger
2007-06-04 - created document, began adding notes
'DIET LABELS KNIGHT SABERS RESPONSIBLE!' the headline read. 'JSDF TASK FORCE ASSEMBLED TO HUNT DOWN NUCLEAR TERRORISTS' The morning's
newsfax slipped out of Sylia's hand and landed on the breakfast table with a flop; Mackie, Linna, and Nene catching sight of it as well when they noticed
her stricken look. The young redhead had grabbed her sister Saber out of the air just in time to save her from a messy reunion with the ground, much the same
way her father had dragged Mackie's battlemover and the GENOM executive they'd rescued through a portal just ahead of the explosion's shockwave.
The woman he'd ditched on the far side of town, before the two men had returned to headquarters.
"They can't be serious!" she squealed, crossing her arms with a huff. "What in the world makes them think we set off some kind of, of atomic
bomb!"
Grabbing the flimsy printout, Linna looked over the article with her one good eye, the other still swollen closed with a bright purple bruise fading to
greenish yellow around the edges. "Apparently they have testimony from GENOM security that we were there when the whole thing started, though none of the
camera recordings survived. They have to explain the blast somehow, and we're handy scapegoats, it seems." Though her voice was level, there was a
deep sadness in her visible eye, and Mackie reached over to rub her shoulder comfortingly.
"It'll probably blow over," he said, trying to sound optimistic. "It's not like it really was the Knight Sabers' fault... I mean,
Largo was one of their own employees, GENOM can't cover it up forever."
"No," his sister said hollowly, "this time it's really the end. We should know by now, GENOM is too well connected to have anything official
fall on them. It's unfortunate, but I think Priss had the best idea," Sylia explained, with a pained look. "Under these circumstances, we have to
quit the Knight Sabers - we can't go on with the police and even the army against us. We gave it our best, and this still happened."
She let out a forced sounding laugh, then added, "At least Priss should be all right, even if she's seen in her new suit - she called earlier to tell
me some of this. It seems rescue crews reported her working by their side the whole time, and claiming to have quit the organization out of disagreement with
what we were about to do... a few media personalities have been calling for her to come forward and name the rest of us, but there's nothing to worry about
there. She's going on tour with the band, as soon as they finish lining up shows."
It was a subdued table as they went through the motions of eating. No one wanted to agree with her conclusion, but despite themselves they couldn't come up
with a convincing argument to refute it. They'd always operated with at least tacit approval, ADPolice and government officials who had 'no
comment' for cameras and unofficially looked the other way. Careful management of media coverage had painted them as much good as bad, as well.
Now they'd been officially labeled terrorists and the full force of an outraged nation was roused calling for their heads, leaders in the international
community taking full advantage of the opportunity to view with alarm and direct public attention away from the way the Polar War was still dragging on. Some
pundits were already claiming that the attack had been sponsored by the other side of that conflict, the well known mercenary team having finally gotten a job
offer too good to be refused to strike a blow against one of the leading industrial giants on this side, one the Sabers were infamous for opposing.
Breakfast was consumed without much enthusiasm, and little more conversation.
Bewilderbeast Studios Present
BUBBLEGUM DISASTER
Season One - March 2033
WISHES ON A SHOOTING STAR
A work of BGC fan fiction by ClassicDrogn
Chapter Six EX
After breakfast, Mackie joined Sylia at the kitchen sink, drying and stacking dishes while she washed. "Sis..." he began, his face troubled, "If
the Knight Sabers disband... Are we really going to just let GENOM get away with what they do?"
Scrubbing at a stubborn plate, the elder Stingray replied, "While we might have an edge in technology, especially with the systems derived from
Priss's unknown unit, at best the Knight Sabers are only a single squad. We can't stand against the entire Self Defense Force, even without the moral
question of firing on human soldiers following the government's lawful orders." She passed the now clean plate, and started working on another.
"Fortunately, the secret of our identities remains secure, and with the recent developments in our abilities the characteristic hardsuits are no longer
strictly necessary. Priss with the Guardian, even if she's taking a sabbatical, Linna's 'fashionable hero' incident, even your rescue of
Inspector McNichol in the Speed King all occurred without association to the Knight Sabers. If there wasn't a currently active Batman in America's East
City I might take up the theme, but I'm sure Nene and I can come up with something. Regardless, with a different organizational identity it's simply a
matter of allowing 'the Knight Sabers' to vanish and presenting ourselves as a new group organized by the fixers I already use, to fill the same kind
of contracts."
While Mackie though that over, absently toweling off the last of the dishes, she drained the sink and stowed the gloves that protected her 'Cecilia
Ishioka-Wayne' manicure back under it. "More immediately, my attention is needed for Wayne Group business - with the damage to GENOM's operations,
there's a lot of production contracts going unfilled worldwide, on top of the recovery efforts, and then there's that stunt they tried to pull with a
knock-off Hurricane Motoslave for the ADP. One of my agents managed to grab the wreckage of that, and it was definitely using the same linear actuators and
distributed microcontroller motion control setup - apparently someone didn't think to check the patent office just because they were studying salvaged
Sabers equipment, and WayneTech's legal department is collectively slavering at the bit over that little error."
"Wait a minute, you mean you patented part of the Sabers' technology!?" he protested. "But those are on public record, why would you do that
when every other thing is aimed at keeping our advanced technology out of circulation?"
Sylia gave him a calming look and explained, "Those designs were key parts of the first Realskin prosthetic cybernetics line in 2028, as the advanced
sensors that gave the limbs a truly lifelike feel to the user left too little room for older motor types. Even their incorporation into the Type-9 military
battlemover can't make me regret the thousands worldwide who have a body that feels real instead of a numb mass of metal and plastic, or the external
support pod of buma systems. The power supply and systems integration of hardsuit technology is one thing, but withholding medical technology just because it
also has military applications is the kind of action I formed the Knight Sabers to remedy."
Breaking the serious mood, she gave a 'jet-setter Cecilia' grin and confided, "Actually, they're in it deeper than that - before I decided to
create a private team, the motoslave concept was for anti-buma police equipment, so the body armor to battleframe link-up turns out to be infringing as well.
GENOM is in for a nice corporate espionage suit, and with the genie out of the bottle there's no reason not to go ahead and have HMW put the Hurricane type
- with a few superficial modifications so the Knight Sabers version looks like a knockoff as well - into production to fill the market GENOM was targeting with
their PMB. The 5200R production line was about to shut down and start retooling anyway, and with the new K-12S and K-17 lines destroyed at GPCC and GENOM
Sydney there's a golden opportunity to grab the law enforcement procurement contracts - contracts Wayne Group will actually fill on time and on budget,
instead of strangling the ability of police to respond to buma crime." Sylia's face fell again, thinking of the devastation that had opened those
doors to opportunity, but reminded herself that they'd done the best they could to deal with the crisis as it appeared.
---=- + -=---
It had taken nearly three days before a path was cleared and certified safe through the rubble of the outer sections of GENOM Tower to the inner, undamaged
areas that had been protected by its armored partitions. Officially, the first human to traverse that path was Chairman Quincy, to hold a press conference
against a background of more buma laborers clearing rubble to prove that his appearances remotely broadcast from the inner shelters hadn't been some
technical trick, and that the 'Buma, Assemblers of Prosperity' tagline from the Kanto Quake recovery project was just as relevant in the wake of this
current disaster.
This was, in fact, untrue. The press conference was held by one of the Chairman's replicant buma, because he was far too busy with salvaging and reworking
the megacorporation's web of influence and clandestine interests from the Division Black operations room, known as The Vault. The first human through the
reopened access was in fact Kate Madigan, who had coordinated the excavation to insure that none of the company's many secrets would accidentally be
exposed by the clean up.
With that now in hand, she presented herself to her superior so he could catch her up on the status of Black and any other projects he wanted her to focus on.
A monitor overhead was showing the press conference outside, and she listened in while waiting for the Chairman to finish what he was working on and turn his
attention to her.
"Due to the lateness of the hour, the outer areas were largely deserted at the time of the incident," the double was saying. "A complete census
has been taken among those sheltered inside, and it pleases me greatly to announce that miraculously, no human lives were lost among those on the premises.
Indeed, as medical facilities are among the services available within, even those who suffered injuries in the attack will soon be whole once more. Naturally,
with the way now open to the outside, GENOM's medical facilities have been made available for relief efforts; just one more example of how the public can
rely on GENOM in these troubled..."
Quincy saved and transmitted the email, and waved Madigan forward. Tapping a finger thoughtfully against the desk's built in monitor, he got straight to
business. "Black's special projects are, for the moment, in hand," he rumbled. "Mr. Watanabe's reports should fill in any details you
require on that front. As to how numerous personnel last logged in outer areas came to be found in the Park Zone, I'm sure you've heard rumors on your
way in?"
Madigan nodded and her face was troubled. "Aye, some sort o' portals that mysteriously appeared t' drop them therre just before things went
totally out of controll. I'd not have bellieved it, if it hadn't happened t' me as well."
Quincy's eyebrows quirked. "Indeed, Ms. Madigan? That was not in your report."
The woman ducked her eyes, admitting, "I though I must ha' been imagining this, between the adrenaline crash and thinkin' you'd just been
killed in front o' me, sirr. I didna' want to seem a madwoman. It happened too quick to see how it was done but the man, Tora - more likely a buma or
bumaroid, from his strength and speed - appeared from one after that battlemover took me from yourr office. He left through one again later, after throwin'
me over his shoulder, and dumped me on the outskirts of the city."
"I see," said Quincy, contemplatively. He steepled his fingers in front of his face before continuing. "Understandable given the circumstances.
And he did not discuss the process with this 'Maki' who was piloting the battlemover?"
"Not at all, sir. If the Knight Sabers have had access to this technology and are familiar wi' it, it could explain how they've managed to avoid
bein' traced back to theirr base beforre."
"Indeed, and combined with the knowledge Maki showed of GENOM secrets, the ability to penetrate physical security effortlessly is a formidable weapon in
anyone's hands. Such a weapon, must be understood, and blocked or destroyed if it cannot not be acquired for our own purposes. To that end, Black will
begin a new project, Aperture Science, to research this... portal technology. Mr. Pettybone is assembling a list of possible personnel for this initiative.
"More immediately, our friend Dr. McLaren's team at Gulf & Bradley has been anxious about the status of Sabertooth in light of the recent setback.
As the development project closest to deployment and with the considerable projected sales of the Sabertooth, this is to be your primary concern for the
moment. It is imperative to prove before the world that despite this blow GENOM is neither down nor out, and you are to see that every effort is made to roll
out the new Sabertooth model on or ahead of schedule. Am I understood, Ms. Madigan?"
"Clearly, sirr," she replied, with a respectful half-bow.
"Excellent," the old blond concluded. "In that case, I shall leave you to your duties, and look in on other departments. Sadly, not all of my
subordinates are as efficient as yourself."
"Thank you, sirr. I'll continue t' do my best, for the good of all of us."
---=- + -=---
"So where you'd come from before finding me in Aqua City, anyway?" Priss asked, the words rushing out in a burst after a couple hours of riding
in Niichigo's tractor cab form, pulling her trailer. "The part of you that wasn't Sylvie or... me, I mean." Getting her trailer and
Kiba's van extracted from the mess that was Megatokyo had been a bitch and a half, but after running across the rest of the band and retrieving their
instruments from the wrecked apartment it had been the most efficient way to get a roof over their heads, and with their shows lined up (and trained search and
rescue personnel making her efforts in Masamune's hardsuit form superfluous) they'd decided the best thing to do was go ahead with the tour. Ghoulish
as it was, the simple fact that they'd been in Megatokyo for the event seemed to be spurring interest according to the club managers they'd been
talking to.
"Well, there was a lot of data loss, but part of what survived was the general knowledge base, basically the builders' version of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica," 215 replied. "Given that plus the amount of material on stars and planets... I'm pretty sure the original Guardian unit came from
outer space, and judging by the current positions of a few stars I've matched up it was put into stasis for delivery to the child of a planetary monarch
over five million years ago." The hybrid's voice came over the cab's sound system, since she still hadn't assimilated enough material to form
a humanoid body as well as the cab interior and truck form - the "sleeper" extension off the back of the cab was still just a shell, for that matter,
with the passage back from the windshield area blocked off.
Straightening up from her slouch against the window, Priss looked sharply at the old, green visor mounted unobtrusively in the center of the dash. "Wait a
minute, you're telling me it glommed onto me 'cause it thought I was some kinda alien princess or something? I may've been orphaned, but I have a
birth certificate and a really gross video file from the hospital to prove I wasn't some Clark Kent foundling from a UFO."
"No, you're 100% native human; even at that point there was a lot of data loss from crashing into the harbor. Basically, any carbon-based,
land-dwelling, endoskeletal humanoid would have fit what it had for ID comparison, as long at it did something that could be identified as 'princely'
or noble. You just had the good luck to meet it before it met a particularly dashing orangutan or something," Niichigo replied, jokingly.
Priss huffed, crossed her arms, and looked away, but not before a grin snuck across her lips. She leaned against the window again to watch the road go by,
following the van with the rest of the Replicants on the first leg of their tour to Osaka.
---=- + -=---
As March gave way to April, most of Megatokyo was back to some semblance of normality, at least outside the mile-wide ring of total destruction centered on
GENOM Tower and the irregularly spaced scars where Largo's orbital strikes or stray shots from the battle had landed. At least one in three street lights
had been repaired but the night was still darker than it had been in a century, due both to the fact that most buildings still had tarps or plywood in place of
missing glass and their signs unlit, and that the solar panels that crowded every rooftop charging batteries during the day for nighttime power were also
shattered by the repeated blasts.
Between the darkness and the obstructed views Linna had figured the Kanto Canyons would be a safe enough place for a flying lesson, which Nene had been
clamoring for since hearing the former dancer's after action report. Even so there was no need to be careless so Linna had worn her body-glove-and-tabard
outfit again while Nene added a similar red tabard to her motorcycle leathers, and both wore red helmets with tinted visors and built in radios. They were also
equipped with heads-up displays that Nene had programmed to show a virtual horizon, airspeed and altitude readings using the same symbology as the hardsuits.
They did not, however, include radar, or even passive radar detetection, so neither woman realized it when they were painted by the terrain mapping system of a
news aerodyne getting background footage for an upcoming 'one month after' story. Too giddy with the ability to fly under their own power, they
didn't even notice the craft until their game of aerial tag was interrupted by a reporter at the top of the canyon calling to them.
Nene let out a squeak of surprise, then her right hand flew to the panel strapped to her left forearm, advanced controls for signal hacking and descrambling
connected to her helmet's peripheral port. Mere seconds later she'd tapped the camera crew's frequency, the aerodyne pilot condemning the reporter
as a madwoman for actively trying to attract the attention of two obvious buma, acting crazy. "Hey," she cut in, "We are not acting crazy! And
we're not buma, either, you jerk!"
Visions of journalism awards dancing in her head, the reporter demanded, "This is Ara Dokoda, Megatokyo News 54. In the green, you're the one who
intercepted the buma attack on the highway in February, aren't you? Who are you, and how can you fly without visible jets, buma or not? Are you connected
to the Knight Sabers? What's your opinion of the alledged nuclear attack at GENOM tower?" Realizing that she had to give them time to talk if she
wanted any answers, Ara took a deep breath and concentrated on getting the best ssible shot as the aerodyne's spotlight centered on the flying duo.
"No! We're, ahm, we're the ..." Nene floundered, having not the faintest notion of what to say.
Linna remembered the original 'Fashionable Hero' incident, but that wasn't quite the reputation she'd want to encourage - being stylish was all
well and good, but innate beauty was always better. She drifted forward and blurted, "Lovely..." before choking, herself.
With the prompt, Nene jumped in again, babbling, "Yeah, that's it, the Lovely, er, Lovely Angels, that's us! Because we can fly, of course!"
Desperate to get away from the camera, she grabbed Linna's arm and flared her aura, then dragged her friend higher into the air.
"Yes that's it, Lovely Angels!" Linna agreed. "No further comment." She quickly regained her composure and brought up her own aura, and
the pair blasted off, flying a high speed slalom through the buildings to get out of sight.
"We are going to be in *so* much trouble..." Nene groaned, rubbing a hand down the visor hiding her face.
"Sylia is going to strangle us," Linna commiserated. "We should have just used your parents' place as usual."
---=- + -=---
KS disband and reform with new membership under new name.
Nam joins field team, Mackie for occasional backup, the remaining original Sabers pretend at being the escaped Genaros sexaroids in their new front
organization. Hatchan?
Cybersamurai? Ronin Cyberai? Ruroni? Bushi? Gundan? Or in English entirely, Masterless Army? Bzzzzt. (Lovely Angels? Mackie could get outvoted)
That fits well with being rogue buma, but G&B wouldn't be likely to hire them for a buma designer's protection. Then again, a bunch of nominal buma
who bail out the ADP would tend to indicate they aren't bound overmuch by that factor, and generate some official goodwill for the 'new' group as
well.
Sylia is NOT going as Moon anything!!! No matter how funny that sketch of Nene's is! No, absolutely not.
Duties shift - Sylia takes over operational EWARF because she doesn't need external support hardware to do it - Nene moves to fill Priss's vacancy in
the front line with Linna, while Nam handles Sylia's high mobility/backup slot, Mackie provides cover fire and plays pack mule for reloads etc. since they
only have body armor now. Still need a new name, though. Sylia intentionally emits a glow in business mode, different color and style than the form fitting
blue of post-Griffin appearances.
Hatchan?? Maybe switch with Nam in lineup, let her stick to scout/medic duty.
New group deploys on an ADP call for a warbeast - namedrop Tyrell Biogenetique SA on camera. Responsibility is claimed by Argentina based splinter faction,
demanding the removal of JSDF troops from the Antarctic, officials refuse to abandon civilian scientists and workers and denounce such cowardly, terrorist
attacks.
--=--
---=- + -=---
-----------------------------
Next time on Bubblegum Disaster:
Live crab? Bah. PWNED!!
-----------------------------
Buma-tech cybernetics needing an external support system - mainly seen in ADP Files (circa 2027) and Crash (2034) where the Cyberpunk influences were more
pronounced, these are the backpacks and handheld units cabled to various slummers' big, clunky borg parts. None of the subjects act all that stable, as one
might expect from genre convention.
Guardian 215 should be imagined with the vocal talents of Susan Blu; if you don't know her by name, she did (among other shows) Arcee on the post-movie
Transformers episodes, as well as in the movie itself. You can even keep the flanging effect if you like, though it's not really there.
Many thanks to everyone on the BDPreread mailing list - you'll get your name listed if you actually make commentary, but just reading and finding nothing
bad enough to complain about is still commentary of a sort.
Drakensis also gets a nod for keeping a remote archive of the story on his web site, http://www.100megsfree4.com/drakensis/ in the Miscellaneous section.
Special thanks to Bob Schroeck, who happens to be the author of another rather good BGC fanfic called _Drunkard's Walk II_ (The first one is not available
for public consumption, but it's a rather modular series.) The Drunkard's Walk home page is http://www.eclipse.net/~rms/dwmain.html and Bob's message board is at http://pub21.ezboard.com/bdrunkardswalkforums
Bubblegum Crisis belongs to Youmex and Animeigo, I make no claims otherwise. Please don't sue me, I have no money to speak of and fanfic does more to
promote your products than anything else I know of - without it, I never would have known about anime at all, and I'd certainly never have bought the BGC
tapes based on the sucky box copy.
Ranma 1/2 I'm not so sure of, except that the creator was Rumiko Takahashi, not me, and that I make no claims to own IT either. I THINK that the Ranma
manga are done by Viz in the US, but that may be incorrect.
The Bionic Six is similarly of unknown provenance, but I have a very vague and unreliable memory that it may have been animated by Suncoast video... In any
case, it's STILL not my own creation.
_Dykstra's War_ is by Jeffery D Kooistra, published by Baen Books.
Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z were created by Akira Toriyama, owned overall by Bandai I think, and released on video in the US by FUNimation and in manga by
Dark Horse (again not so sure about that one - could be Viz)
Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi, and is undoubtedly also owned by some animation studio or another. DIC? I know that the RPG rights in North America
used to belong to Guardians of Order.
-----------------------------
EOF
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
Disaster, after they get blamed for trashing Megatokyo in ch6 and pull a Thunderbolts maneuver. I've added the updated EX chapter (as well as heavily
proofread versions of Ch6, you'll be happy to learn) to the BDPreread yahoogroup, and will also append Ch6EX here.
If you haven't read Disaster, it's enough to know that in the last chapter, Priss quit the KS, kicked the imposter Sabers' asses with her
techyno-Venom hardsuit substitute and Leon in a GENOM knockoff motoslave at the bank, and left to go on tour with the band, Sylia and Largo's fight set off
two huge shockwaves that demolished a mile radius around Genom Tower and broke every widow in the city, leaving the Sabers accused of nuclear terrorism, and
Linna learned to fly the Dragonball way out of a deep desire to not go splat after having her hardsuit ripped off her and being trown off the top of GENOM
Tower, pre-pseudonuking. Oh, and Nene's parents are the Mirror CLones of Ranma that ran off at the end of their manga chapter, and have an extradimensional
island where she and Linna usually do their martial arts training; and a coupl of chapters back Linna inadvertently appeared in a close approximation of a
Great Saiyaman outfit when a buma attack got her stuck in gridlock on the highway.
- CD
-------------------------------------------------------------
11_BD_WOASS_Ch6_EX.txt
2009-11-24 - Aperture Science & Lovely Angels scenes
2009-11-22 - added dishes scene, notes
2009-06-23 - added Priss/215 road scene
2008-10-08 - moved last scene of 6c to here to kill the gratuitous cliffhanger
2007-06-04 - created document, began adding notes
'DIET LABELS KNIGHT SABERS RESPONSIBLE!' the headline read. 'JSDF TASK FORCE ASSEMBLED TO HUNT DOWN NUCLEAR TERRORISTS' The morning's
newsfax slipped out of Sylia's hand and landed on the breakfast table with a flop; Mackie, Linna, and Nene catching sight of it as well when they noticed
her stricken look. The young redhead had grabbed her sister Saber out of the air just in time to save her from a messy reunion with the ground, much the same
way her father had dragged Mackie's battlemover and the GENOM executive they'd rescued through a portal just ahead of the explosion's shockwave.
The woman he'd ditched on the far side of town, before the two men had returned to headquarters.
"They can't be serious!" she squealed, crossing her arms with a huff. "What in the world makes them think we set off some kind of, of atomic
bomb!"
Grabbing the flimsy printout, Linna looked over the article with her one good eye, the other still swollen closed with a bright purple bruise fading to
greenish yellow around the edges. "Apparently they have testimony from GENOM security that we were there when the whole thing started, though none of the
camera recordings survived. They have to explain the blast somehow, and we're handy scapegoats, it seems." Though her voice was level, there was a
deep sadness in her visible eye, and Mackie reached over to rub her shoulder comfortingly.
"It'll probably blow over," he said, trying to sound optimistic. "It's not like it really was the Knight Sabers' fault... I mean,
Largo was one of their own employees, GENOM can't cover it up forever."
"No," his sister said hollowly, "this time it's really the end. We should know by now, GENOM is too well connected to have anything official
fall on them. It's unfortunate, but I think Priss had the best idea," Sylia explained, with a pained look. "Under these circumstances, we have to
quit the Knight Sabers - we can't go on with the police and even the army against us. We gave it our best, and this still happened."
She let out a forced sounding laugh, then added, "At least Priss should be all right, even if she's seen in her new suit - she called earlier to tell
me some of this. It seems rescue crews reported her working by their side the whole time, and claiming to have quit the organization out of disagreement with
what we were about to do... a few media personalities have been calling for her to come forward and name the rest of us, but there's nothing to worry about
there. She's going on tour with the band, as soon as they finish lining up shows."
It was a subdued table as they went through the motions of eating. No one wanted to agree with her conclusion, but despite themselves they couldn't come up
with a convincing argument to refute it. They'd always operated with at least tacit approval, ADPolice and government officials who had 'no
comment' for cameras and unofficially looked the other way. Careful management of media coverage had painted them as much good as bad, as well.
Now they'd been officially labeled terrorists and the full force of an outraged nation was roused calling for their heads, leaders in the international
community taking full advantage of the opportunity to view with alarm and direct public attention away from the way the Polar War was still dragging on. Some
pundits were already claiming that the attack had been sponsored by the other side of that conflict, the well known mercenary team having finally gotten a job
offer too good to be refused to strike a blow against one of the leading industrial giants on this side, one the Sabers were infamous for opposing.
Breakfast was consumed without much enthusiasm, and little more conversation.
Bewilderbeast Studios Present
BUBBLEGUM DISASTER
Season One - March 2033
WISHES ON A SHOOTING STAR
A work of BGC fan fiction by ClassicDrogn
Chapter Six EX
After breakfast, Mackie joined Sylia at the kitchen sink, drying and stacking dishes while she washed. "Sis..." he began, his face troubled, "If
the Knight Sabers disband... Are we really going to just let GENOM get away with what they do?"
Scrubbing at a stubborn plate, the elder Stingray replied, "While we might have an edge in technology, especially with the systems derived from
Priss's unknown unit, at best the Knight Sabers are only a single squad. We can't stand against the entire Self Defense Force, even without the moral
question of firing on human soldiers following the government's lawful orders." She passed the now clean plate, and started working on another.
"Fortunately, the secret of our identities remains secure, and with the recent developments in our abilities the characteristic hardsuits are no longer
strictly necessary. Priss with the Guardian, even if she's taking a sabbatical, Linna's 'fashionable hero' incident, even your rescue of
Inspector McNichol in the Speed King all occurred without association to the Knight Sabers. If there wasn't a currently active Batman in America's East
City I might take up the theme, but I'm sure Nene and I can come up with something. Regardless, with a different organizational identity it's simply a
matter of allowing 'the Knight Sabers' to vanish and presenting ourselves as a new group organized by the fixers I already use, to fill the same kind
of contracts."
While Mackie though that over, absently toweling off the last of the dishes, she drained the sink and stowed the gloves that protected her 'Cecilia
Ishioka-Wayne' manicure back under it. "More immediately, my attention is needed for Wayne Group business - with the damage to GENOM's operations,
there's a lot of production contracts going unfilled worldwide, on top of the recovery efforts, and then there's that stunt they tried to pull with a
knock-off Hurricane Motoslave for the ADP. One of my agents managed to grab the wreckage of that, and it was definitely using the same linear actuators and
distributed microcontroller motion control setup - apparently someone didn't think to check the patent office just because they were studying salvaged
Sabers equipment, and WayneTech's legal department is collectively slavering at the bit over that little error."
"Wait a minute, you mean you patented part of the Sabers' technology!?" he protested. "But those are on public record, why would you do that
when every other thing is aimed at keeping our advanced technology out of circulation?"
Sylia gave him a calming look and explained, "Those designs were key parts of the first Realskin prosthetic cybernetics line in 2028, as the advanced
sensors that gave the limbs a truly lifelike feel to the user left too little room for older motor types. Even their incorporation into the Type-9 military
battlemover can't make me regret the thousands worldwide who have a body that feels real instead of a numb mass of metal and plastic, or the external
support pod of buma systems. The power supply and systems integration of hardsuit technology is one thing, but withholding medical technology just because it
also has military applications is the kind of action I formed the Knight Sabers to remedy."
Breaking the serious mood, she gave a 'jet-setter Cecilia' grin and confided, "Actually, they're in it deeper than that - before I decided to
create a private team, the motoslave concept was for anti-buma police equipment, so the body armor to battleframe link-up turns out to be infringing as well.
GENOM is in for a nice corporate espionage suit, and with the genie out of the bottle there's no reason not to go ahead and have HMW put the Hurricane type
- with a few superficial modifications so the Knight Sabers version looks like a knockoff as well - into production to fill the market GENOM was targeting with
their PMB. The 5200R production line was about to shut down and start retooling anyway, and with the new K-12S and K-17 lines destroyed at GPCC and GENOM
Sydney there's a golden opportunity to grab the law enforcement procurement contracts - contracts Wayne Group will actually fill on time and on budget,
instead of strangling the ability of police to respond to buma crime." Sylia's face fell again, thinking of the devastation that had opened those
doors to opportunity, but reminded herself that they'd done the best they could to deal with the crisis as it appeared.
---=- + -=---
It had taken nearly three days before a path was cleared and certified safe through the rubble of the outer sections of GENOM Tower to the inner, undamaged
areas that had been protected by its armored partitions. Officially, the first human to traverse that path was Chairman Quincy, to hold a press conference
against a background of more buma laborers clearing rubble to prove that his appearances remotely broadcast from the inner shelters hadn't been some
technical trick, and that the 'Buma, Assemblers of Prosperity' tagline from the Kanto Quake recovery project was just as relevant in the wake of this
current disaster.
This was, in fact, untrue. The press conference was held by one of the Chairman's replicant buma, because he was far too busy with salvaging and reworking
the megacorporation's web of influence and clandestine interests from the Division Black operations room, known as The Vault. The first human through the
reopened access was in fact Kate Madigan, who had coordinated the excavation to insure that none of the company's many secrets would accidentally be
exposed by the clean up.
With that now in hand, she presented herself to her superior so he could catch her up on the status of Black and any other projects he wanted her to focus on.
A monitor overhead was showing the press conference outside, and she listened in while waiting for the Chairman to finish what he was working on and turn his
attention to her.
"Due to the lateness of the hour, the outer areas were largely deserted at the time of the incident," the double was saying. "A complete census
has been taken among those sheltered inside, and it pleases me greatly to announce that miraculously, no human lives were lost among those on the premises.
Indeed, as medical facilities are among the services available within, even those who suffered injuries in the attack will soon be whole once more. Naturally,
with the way now open to the outside, GENOM's medical facilities have been made available for relief efforts; just one more example of how the public can
rely on GENOM in these troubled..."
Quincy saved and transmitted the email, and waved Madigan forward. Tapping a finger thoughtfully against the desk's built in monitor, he got straight to
business. "Black's special projects are, for the moment, in hand," he rumbled. "Mr. Watanabe's reports should fill in any details you
require on that front. As to how numerous personnel last logged in outer areas came to be found in the Park Zone, I'm sure you've heard rumors on your
way in?"
Madigan nodded and her face was troubled. "Aye, some sort o' portals that mysteriously appeared t' drop them therre just before things went
totally out of controll. I'd not have bellieved it, if it hadn't happened t' me as well."
Quincy's eyebrows quirked. "Indeed, Ms. Madigan? That was not in your report."
The woman ducked her eyes, admitting, "I though I must ha' been imagining this, between the adrenaline crash and thinkin' you'd just been
killed in front o' me, sirr. I didna' want to seem a madwoman. It happened too quick to see how it was done but the man, Tora - more likely a buma or
bumaroid, from his strength and speed - appeared from one after that battlemover took me from yourr office. He left through one again later, after throwin'
me over his shoulder, and dumped me on the outskirts of the city."
"I see," said Quincy, contemplatively. He steepled his fingers in front of his face before continuing. "Understandable given the circumstances.
And he did not discuss the process with this 'Maki' who was piloting the battlemover?"
"Not at all, sir. If the Knight Sabers have had access to this technology and are familiar wi' it, it could explain how they've managed to avoid
bein' traced back to theirr base beforre."
"Indeed, and combined with the knowledge Maki showed of GENOM secrets, the ability to penetrate physical security effortlessly is a formidable weapon in
anyone's hands. Such a weapon, must be understood, and blocked or destroyed if it cannot not be acquired for our own purposes. To that end, Black will
begin a new project, Aperture Science, to research this... portal technology. Mr. Pettybone is assembling a list of possible personnel for this initiative.
"More immediately, our friend Dr. McLaren's team at Gulf & Bradley has been anxious about the status of Sabertooth in light of the recent setback.
As the development project closest to deployment and with the considerable projected sales of the Sabertooth, this is to be your primary concern for the
moment. It is imperative to prove before the world that despite this blow GENOM is neither down nor out, and you are to see that every effort is made to roll
out the new Sabertooth model on or ahead of schedule. Am I understood, Ms. Madigan?"
"Clearly, sirr," she replied, with a respectful half-bow.
"Excellent," the old blond concluded. "In that case, I shall leave you to your duties, and look in on other departments. Sadly, not all of my
subordinates are as efficient as yourself."
"Thank you, sirr. I'll continue t' do my best, for the good of all of us."
---=- + -=---
"So where you'd come from before finding me in Aqua City, anyway?" Priss asked, the words rushing out in a burst after a couple hours of riding
in Niichigo's tractor cab form, pulling her trailer. "The part of you that wasn't Sylvie or... me, I mean." Getting her trailer and
Kiba's van extracted from the mess that was Megatokyo had been a bitch and a half, but after running across the rest of the band and retrieving their
instruments from the wrecked apartment it had been the most efficient way to get a roof over their heads, and with their shows lined up (and trained search and
rescue personnel making her efforts in Masamune's hardsuit form superfluous) they'd decided the best thing to do was go ahead with the tour. Ghoulish
as it was, the simple fact that they'd been in Megatokyo for the event seemed to be spurring interest according to the club managers they'd been
talking to.
"Well, there was a lot of data loss, but part of what survived was the general knowledge base, basically the builders' version of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica," 215 replied. "Given that plus the amount of material on stars and planets... I'm pretty sure the original Guardian unit came from
outer space, and judging by the current positions of a few stars I've matched up it was put into stasis for delivery to the child of a planetary monarch
over five million years ago." The hybrid's voice came over the cab's sound system, since she still hadn't assimilated enough material to form
a humanoid body as well as the cab interior and truck form - the "sleeper" extension off the back of the cab was still just a shell, for that matter,
with the passage back from the windshield area blocked off.
Straightening up from her slouch against the window, Priss looked sharply at the old, green visor mounted unobtrusively in the center of the dash. "Wait a
minute, you're telling me it glommed onto me 'cause it thought I was some kinda alien princess or something? I may've been orphaned, but I have a
birth certificate and a really gross video file from the hospital to prove I wasn't some Clark Kent foundling from a UFO."
"No, you're 100% native human; even at that point there was a lot of data loss from crashing into the harbor. Basically, any carbon-based,
land-dwelling, endoskeletal humanoid would have fit what it had for ID comparison, as long at it did something that could be identified as 'princely'
or noble. You just had the good luck to meet it before it met a particularly dashing orangutan or something," Niichigo replied, jokingly.
Priss huffed, crossed her arms, and looked away, but not before a grin snuck across her lips. She leaned against the window again to watch the road go by,
following the van with the rest of the Replicants on the first leg of their tour to Osaka.
---=- + -=---
As March gave way to April, most of Megatokyo was back to some semblance of normality, at least outside the mile-wide ring of total destruction centered on
GENOM Tower and the irregularly spaced scars where Largo's orbital strikes or stray shots from the battle had landed. At least one in three street lights
had been repaired but the night was still darker than it had been in a century, due both to the fact that most buildings still had tarps or plywood in place of
missing glass and their signs unlit, and that the solar panels that crowded every rooftop charging batteries during the day for nighttime power were also
shattered by the repeated blasts.
Between the darkness and the obstructed views Linna had figured the Kanto Canyons would be a safe enough place for a flying lesson, which Nene had been
clamoring for since hearing the former dancer's after action report. Even so there was no need to be careless so Linna had worn her body-glove-and-tabard
outfit again while Nene added a similar red tabard to her motorcycle leathers, and both wore red helmets with tinted visors and built in radios. They were also
equipped with heads-up displays that Nene had programmed to show a virtual horizon, airspeed and altitude readings using the same symbology as the hardsuits.
They did not, however, include radar, or even passive radar detetection, so neither woman realized it when they were painted by the terrain mapping system of a
news aerodyne getting background footage for an upcoming 'one month after' story. Too giddy with the ability to fly under their own power, they
didn't even notice the craft until their game of aerial tag was interrupted by a reporter at the top of the canyon calling to them.
Nene let out a squeak of surprise, then her right hand flew to the panel strapped to her left forearm, advanced controls for signal hacking and descrambling
connected to her helmet's peripheral port. Mere seconds later she'd tapped the camera crew's frequency, the aerodyne pilot condemning the reporter
as a madwoman for actively trying to attract the attention of two obvious buma, acting crazy. "Hey," she cut in, "We are not acting crazy! And
we're not buma, either, you jerk!"
Visions of journalism awards dancing in her head, the reporter demanded, "This is Ara Dokoda, Megatokyo News 54. In the green, you're the one who
intercepted the buma attack on the highway in February, aren't you? Who are you, and how can you fly without visible jets, buma or not? Are you connected
to the Knight Sabers? What's your opinion of the alledged nuclear attack at GENOM tower?" Realizing that she had to give them time to talk if she
wanted any answers, Ara took a deep breath and concentrated on getting the best ssible shot as the aerodyne's spotlight centered on the flying duo.
"No! We're, ahm, we're the ..." Nene floundered, having not the faintest notion of what to say.
Linna remembered the original 'Fashionable Hero' incident, but that wasn't quite the reputation she'd want to encourage - being stylish was all
well and good, but innate beauty was always better. She drifted forward and blurted, "Lovely..." before choking, herself.
With the prompt, Nene jumped in again, babbling, "Yeah, that's it, the Lovely, er, Lovely Angels, that's us! Because we can fly, of course!"
Desperate to get away from the camera, she grabbed Linna's arm and flared her aura, then dragged her friend higher into the air.
"Yes that's it, Lovely Angels!" Linna agreed. "No further comment." She quickly regained her composure and brought up her own aura, and
the pair blasted off, flying a high speed slalom through the buildings to get out of sight.
"We are going to be in *so* much trouble..." Nene groaned, rubbing a hand down the visor hiding her face.
"Sylia is going to strangle us," Linna commiserated. "We should have just used your parents' place as usual."
---=- + -=---
KS disband and reform with new membership under new name.
Nam joins field team, Mackie for occasional backup, the remaining original Sabers pretend at being the escaped Genaros sexaroids in their new front
organization. Hatchan?
Cybersamurai? Ronin Cyberai? Ruroni? Bushi? Gundan? Or in English entirely, Masterless Army? Bzzzzt. (Lovely Angels? Mackie could get outvoted)
That fits well with being rogue buma, but G&B wouldn't be likely to hire them for a buma designer's protection. Then again, a bunch of nominal buma
who bail out the ADP would tend to indicate they aren't bound overmuch by that factor, and generate some official goodwill for the 'new' group as
well.
Sylia is NOT going as Moon anything!!! No matter how funny that sketch of Nene's is! No, absolutely not.
Duties shift - Sylia takes over operational EWARF because she doesn't need external support hardware to do it - Nene moves to fill Priss's vacancy in
the front line with Linna, while Nam handles Sylia's high mobility/backup slot, Mackie provides cover fire and plays pack mule for reloads etc. since they
only have body armor now. Still need a new name, though. Sylia intentionally emits a glow in business mode, different color and style than the form fitting
blue of post-Griffin appearances.
Hatchan?? Maybe switch with Nam in lineup, let her stick to scout/medic duty.
New group deploys on an ADP call for a warbeast - namedrop Tyrell Biogenetique SA on camera. Responsibility is claimed by Argentina based splinter faction,
demanding the removal of JSDF troops from the Antarctic, officials refuse to abandon civilian scientists and workers and denounce such cowardly, terrorist
attacks.
--=--
---=- + -=---
-----------------------------
Next time on Bubblegum Disaster:
Live crab? Bah. PWNED!!
-----------------------------
Buma-tech cybernetics needing an external support system - mainly seen in ADP Files (circa 2027) and Crash (2034) where the Cyberpunk influences were more
pronounced, these are the backpacks and handheld units cabled to various slummers' big, clunky borg parts. None of the subjects act all that stable, as one
might expect from genre convention.
Guardian 215 should be imagined with the vocal talents of Susan Blu; if you don't know her by name, she did (among other shows) Arcee on the post-movie
Transformers episodes, as well as in the movie itself. You can even keep the flanging effect if you like, though it's not really there.
Many thanks to everyone on the BDPreread mailing list - you'll get your name listed if you actually make commentary, but just reading and finding nothing
bad enough to complain about is still commentary of a sort.
Drakensis also gets a nod for keeping a remote archive of the story on his web site, http://www.100megsfree4.com/drakensis/ in the Miscellaneous section.
Special thanks to Bob Schroeck, who happens to be the author of another rather good BGC fanfic called _Drunkard's Walk II_ (The first one is not available
for public consumption, but it's a rather modular series.) The Drunkard's Walk home page is http://www.eclipse.net/~rms/dwmain.html and Bob's message board is at http://pub21.ezboard.com/bdrunkardswalkforums
Bubblegum Crisis belongs to Youmex and Animeigo, I make no claims otherwise. Please don't sue me, I have no money to speak of and fanfic does more to
promote your products than anything else I know of - without it, I never would have known about anime at all, and I'd certainly never have bought the BGC
tapes based on the sucky box copy.
Ranma 1/2 I'm not so sure of, except that the creator was Rumiko Takahashi, not me, and that I make no claims to own IT either. I THINK that the Ranma
manga are done by Viz in the US, but that may be incorrect.
The Bionic Six is similarly of unknown provenance, but I have a very vague and unreliable memory that it may have been animated by Suncoast video... In any
case, it's STILL not my own creation.
_Dykstra's War_ is by Jeffery D Kooistra, published by Baen Books.
Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z were created by Akira Toriyama, owned overall by Bandai I think, and released on video in the US by FUNimation and in manga by
Dark Horse (again not so sure about that one - could be Viz)
Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi, and is undoubtedly also owned by some animation studio or another. DIC? I know that the RPG rights in North America
used to belong to Guardians of Order.
-----------------------------
EOF
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows